US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage by reportedly using crude language to describe foreign countries in an Oval Office meeting.

Mr Trump insists he did not insult Haitians and appeared to deny calling any nations “shitholes”, as was reported, prompting a global outcry.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Mr Trump called African countries “shitholes” and used “racist” language.

But two Republicans present said they could not remember those comments.

Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, of Arkansas and Georgia, said they heard the president “call out” what they described as “the imbalance in our current immigration system”.

Amid widespread coverage of his remarks at the private meeting with lawmakers to discuss immigration legislation on Thursday, Mr Trump on Friday tweeted that his language at the meeting had been “tough”. But he added that the words attributed to him were “not the language used”.