There is sharp disagreement between President Trump and the rest of the G7 on a range of key issues, European officials said on Friday, as the summit got underway in the picturesque clifftop town of Taormina in Sicily.

But European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk said there was also some common ground with the US which they hoped to build on during the two-day meeting.

The big points of difference between the new US leader and the rest of the G7 leaders include Mr Trump’s threat to bail out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on combating climate change and his call for trade protectionism.