US PRESIDENT Donald Trump insisted yesterday that he has the “absolute right” to share information with Russia concerning terrorism after he came under fire for disclosing classified intelligence at a meeting last week.

The furore erupted on Monday night when the Washington Post newspaper claimed Mr Trump had shared classified information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the White House last Wednesday.

Anonymous current and former government officials told the Post that the classified information regarding an Isis threat had come from a US ally through an intelligence-sharing arrangement.

They claimed that that the president had revealed details to Mr Lavrov that could expose the source of the information, potentially putting agents in the field at risk.

The White House swiftly denied such claims to reporters on Monday but Mr Trump then appeared to admit to the allegation, sending a series of tweets yesterday saying he had the right to share “facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety.”

He said he did so for “humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against Isis and terrorism.”

Mr Trump did not mention whether the information he shared was classified. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the Post report as “yet another fake.”

In New Zealand, a subscriber of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement with the US, Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee said that solving the Syria crisis required US-Russian co-operation and the Trump-Lavrov meeting was “a step towards that.”

The recent revelation follows allegations that Mr Trump’s former security adviser Michael Flynn hid details of talks with Mr Kislyak before the president’s inauguration.

The US Congress is also probing the outgoing Obama administration’s claims that Kremlin hackers swung the election for Mr Trump against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The Senate foreign relations committee’s Republican chairman Bob Corker said the White House “has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and order.”

And Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said intelligence sharing “puts at risk the lives of Americans and those who gather intelligence for our country.”