White House backtracks on commitment to honour refugee deal with Australia

President Donald Trump's commitment to the United States' refugee deal with Australia now appears to be in doubt despite his spokesman initially confirming the agreement.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced after his weekend phone call with Mr Trump that the president had agreed to honour the deal to take 1250 asylum seekers currently in Australia's custody on Manus Island and Nauru.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer later backed the statement, saying the deal would go ahead subject to Mr Trump's controversial "extreme vetting" process.

But follow-up calls to the White House by the ABC suggest the president himself had not made up his mind.

The outlet reported a spokesperson saying if President Trump did decide to honour the deal it would only because of Australia's long standing friendship with America.

"Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them," Mr Spicer said prior to the revelation.

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"The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward."

Mr Turnbull originally struck the deal with former President Barack Obama before Mr Trump last week placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict US border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria.

As protests sprung up in airports across the US, and as the country's federal court slapped an emergency stay on the president's so-called "muslim ban", Mr Turnbull's office declared Mr Trump had assured Australia's prime minister he would honour the deal.

The refugees in question are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.

- With AAP

News break - February 1