Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron stand during the playing of national anthems at the official arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House

Donald Trump has given his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron a red carpet welcome at the White House.

The US president and first lady greeted Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, in a ceremonial welcome Tuesday morning which saw nearly 500 US service-members from all five military branches participate in a ”Review of the Troops”.

The two leaders later held a joint press conference in which they announced progress on a range of issues, including the potential that they could begin negotiating a "new" Iran nuclear deal that would leave the current one largely in-tact.

Mr Macron is on a three-day official state visit to the US, the first in Mr Trump’s presidency.

On Monday, the presidents took a helicopter tour of Washington monuments and then went on a trip to the Potamic River home of George Washington for dinner.

Aside from the pomp and ceremony, Mr Trump and Mr Macron agree on some fundamental issues.

One main point of contention is the multinational nuclear deal aimed at restricting Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, which Mr Trump wants to abandon.

Mr Trump ended his first year in office without receiving a foreign leader on a state visit, making him the first president in nearly 100 years to fail to do so.