US President Donald Trump has delivered his first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States after a new spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centres around the country and massive vandalism in a Jewish cemetery.

Key points: Trump says threats are "horrible and painful reminder of work still needed to be done"

Trump says threats are "horrible and painful reminder of work still needed to be done" Critics say President's comments are too little, too late

Critics say President's comments are too little, too late Trump's daughter Ivanka, a convert to Judaism, says religious centres must be protected

Several of the centres were evacuated on Monday after receiving the threats, the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) Association of North America said.

Separately, vandals toppled scores of headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in St Louis, Missouri over the weekend.

"The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centres are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil," Mr Trump told reporters.

He was speaking at the end of a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, which Mr Trump said showed "why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms".

The comments marked a change for Mr Trump, who had not explicitly and publicly condemned the threats against Jews when asked last week.

Instead, he spoke more generally about his hopes of making the country less "divided".

Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka, a convert to Judaism and a close adviser to her father, responded to the latest threats in a message on her Twitter account on Monday evening.

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Mr Trump has often noted that his daughter is a convert to Judaism, he has Jewish grandchildren and he employs many Jews in his business.

The President reacted with anger at a news conference last week when a journalist from a Jewish magazine asked how his Government planned to "take care" of a rise in threats.

Mr Trump berated the reporter for asking a "very insulting" question, appearing to believe he was accusing him personally of being anti-Semitic.

"Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life," the President said, adding that he was also the least racist person.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump again declined to answer a question about what action he would take to address the threats to Jewish organisations.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer said later that Mr Trump would respond through "deed and action" over the coming months and years.

Trump criticised for 'bandaid' comments

Mr Trump's derogatory campaign rhetoric against Muslims and Mexican immigrants won enthusiastic backing from prominent white supremacists who embrace anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-Muslim ideologies.

It also drew greater media attention to fringe extremist groups.

Mr Trump has disavowed their support. His chief strategist Steve Bannon is the former publisher of Breitbart, a news website popular among right-wing extremist groups.

The Anne Frank Centre for Mutual Respect in New York, which has criticised the Trump administration repeatedly over anti-Semitism, said his comments were too little, too late.

"The President's sudden acknowledgement is a bandaid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration," Steven Goldstein, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

Mr Spicer rejected the characterisation.

"I wish they had praised the President for his leadership in this area," he told reporters when asked about Mr Goldstein's comment.

"Hopefully as time goes by they'll recognise his commitment to civil rights."

Jewish groups criticised the White House for omitting any mention of Jews in its statement marking Holocaust Memorial Day last month.

The White House said the omission was deliberate since the Nazis also killed people who were not Jews, if in smaller numbers.

Reuters