British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has held talks with senior members of Donald Trump's team as the British government seeks to strengthen its links to the US president-elect before he takes office.
Mr Johnson met Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and the president-elect's chief strategist Steve Bannon after flying to New York yesterday on a hastily-arranged trip.
Mr Johnson will also meet key Republicans in Washington, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and senators Bob Corker and Mitch McConnell.
Yesterday's meeting came after British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned Mr Trump's comments about groping women as "unacceptable".
But she indicated the special relationship between the UK and US would flourish when he was in the White House.
Ms May, who is expected to meet Mr Trump in the spring, said she has had two "very good, positive" conversations with Mr Trump.
She said the "relationship that the UK has with the United States is about something much bigger than just the relationship between the two individuals as president and prime minister".
The US and Britain have a "long-standing special relationship", she said, which is "based on shared values and it is a relationship where, actually in the UK, we feel we can say to the US if we disagree with something that they are doing".
The status of the transatlantic relationship has been the subject of intense scrutiny since Mr Trump won the US presidential election in November.
That interest has been partly fuelled by the president-elect's apparent close relationship with former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
Mr Trump had tweeted that he was looking forward to meeting Ms May in Washington in the spring, describing long-time US ally Britain as "very special".
A date for the meeting is yet to be revealed, but it is expected to come within weeks of Mr Trump's inauguration on 20 January.
