U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak Sunday for the first time since Trump's inauguration, with Israel already taking advantage of his support by pushing through settlement plans.

The call between the leaders was scheduled for 1.30pm Washington, D.C. time, the White House said.

'A telephone conversation will be held this evening between President Trump and me. Many matters face us, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the Iranian threat,' Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks at the start of an Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Netanyahu is a harsh critic of a 2015 U.S.-brokered deal to curtail Iran's nuclear capabilities, saying the deal falls far short of what's needed to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Trump has pledged strong support for Israel and vowed during his campaign to recognize Jerusalem as the country's capital, despite the city's contested status (file photo)

Netanyahu is a harsh critic of a 2015 US-led deal to curtail Iran's nuclear capabilities, saying the deal falls far short of what's needed to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions (File photo)

'The supreme goal of the state of Israel continues to be stopping the Iranian threat and stopping the threat from the bad nuclear deal signed with Iran,' he said, according to CNN.

Trump appears to share those concerns. 'I'm not happy with the Iran deal, I think it's one of the worst deals ever made,' he said in a January 16 interview. I think it's one of the dumbest deals I've ever seen, one of the dumbest.'

But he declined to say whether he intended to 'renegotiate' the deal, as he asserted regularly during the presidential campaign.

Trump has pledged strong support for Israel and vowed during his campaign to recognize Jerusalem as the country's capital, despite the city's contested status.

The United States is Israel's most important ally, providing it with more than $3 billion per year in defense aid, but former president Barack Obama grew frustrated with Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

He declined to veto a December 23 UN Security Council resolution condemning settlements. Trump called for the resolution to be vetoed.

On Sunday, Israeli officials approved hundreds of new settler homes that had been postponed until after Trump took office.

Hardline Israeli ministers were pushing a plan to unilaterally annex a large Jewish settlement near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, a move many say could badly damage prospects for a two-state solution.

In an initial move following Trump's inauguration, Israeli officials on Sunday approved building permits for 566 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem.

New apartments under construction earlier this month, in the Israeli settlement of Har Homa in east Jerusalem

'The rules of the game have changed with Donald Trump's arrival as president,' Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turjeman told AFP.

'We no longer have our hands tied as in the time of Barack Obama. Now we can finally build.'

The Palestinian presidency condemned the move, calling it a violation of the UN resolution.

A draft bill to annex the Maale Adumim settlement was also to be discussed by ministers on Sunday.

Annexing Maale Adumim unilaterally would set off alarm bells globally, with many warning that it would be another step towards dividing the occupied West Bank between north and south, making a contiguous Palestinian state difficult to achieve.

But for some Israeli ministers who oppose a Palestinian state, that is precisely the point.

'We have to tell the American administration what we want and not wait for orders from the administration,' Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Israel's army radio.