US President Donald Trump has said he accepts US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election - despite declining to do so just a day ago

US President Donald Trump has said he accepts US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election - despite declining to do so just a day ago

He said he had misspoken on Monday and had meant to say he saw no reason why it was not Russia that meddled

The original comments, after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, drew a barrage of criticism

In his latest remarks, he added that he had "full faith and support" in US intelligence agencies

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to appear before Congress next week to answer questions on what happened during Mr Trump’s two-hour meeting with President Putin on Monday

The controversy centres on a response he gave to a question at a news conference on Monday following the summit with Mr Putin

REPORTER: President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is, who do you believe?

TRUMP: My people came to me... they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be

Mr Trump said he had reviewed the transcript and realised he needed to clarify

"In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ’would’ instead of ’wouldn’t," he said

"The sentence should have been: ’I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t’ or ’why it wouldn’t be Russia’. Sort of a double negative."

The US president added: "I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. A lot of people out there."

Mr Trump said that the interference had had no impact on the election, in which he defeated Hillary Clinton

However, he did not respond when reporters asked him if he would condemn Mr Putin