Trump, Turnbull mend ties

Donald Trump met Australia's Malcolm Turnbull for a patch-things-up summit in New York Thursday, when the US president said an earlier telephone spat had been "all worked out."

Trump claimed a bad-tempered call with the Australian prime minister early in his White House tenure had been "fake news" that was a "big exaggeration" by the media.

However, during a speech later in the evening, he admitted it "got a little bit testy."

Trump reportedly exploded and cut short the call when he was told about a Barack Obama-era deal to move refugees from Australia to America.

The president took to Twitter afterward to call the agreement "dumb," rattling a decades-old alliance.

"It's all worked out. It's been worked out for a long time," Trump said on Thursday, as the pair, dressed in black tie, smiled and swapped legislative war stories.

"We had a great telephone call. You guys exaggerated that call. That was a big exaggeration. We're not babies," Trump said during his first meeting with Turnbull, reverting to his favored tactic of media-bashing.

"We get along great. We have a fantastic relationship, I love Australia, I always have," he added.

Turnbull said that "we can put the refugee deal behind you and move on."

The pair convened on a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the Intrepid, to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea -- and to steady the long-standing alliance after relations soured at a time of growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific.

The World War II fight against Japanese forces helped forge an alliance during which Australia has pitched in alongside the United States in every major conflict since.

The crisis over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and a fence-mending trip to Sydney by Vice President Mike Pence last month appears to have eased tension between the United States and Australia.

After meeting Turnbull, Pence had said the United States would take the refugees but added it "doesn't mean we admire the agreement."

A businessman-turned-politician like Trump, Turnbull has said he was "delighted" to meet with the US leader and affirm the relationship.

Trump, for his part, said he would be happy to travel Down Under, describing the United States and Australia as "rebellious children of the same parent."