Congressional negotiators on Tuesday inched toward a potential agreement on a catchall spending bill that would deny President Donald Trump's request for immediate funding to construct a wall along the Mexico border.

The emerging measure would increase the defense budget and eliminate the threat of a government shutdown on Mr Trump's 100th day in office this Saturday.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Republican negotiators were following the lead of Mr Trump, who signaled Monday evening that he would not insist on $1 billion (£780 million) worth of wall funding now as an addition to the $1 trillion-plus spending bill. Mr Trump told a gathering of conservative media reporters that he might be willing to wait until September for the funding.

Other stumbling blocks remain, but the decision by Mr Trump and his GOP allies to back down on the wall steered the talks on the spending measure in a positive direction.