US President Donald Trump has floated imposing tariffs on countries that oppose his plan to annex Greenland.

Trump made the comment at a White House meeting on Friday (local time) but did not name which countries he was considering.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” Trump said.

It was also revealed that Trump was planning to visit the semiautonomous Danish territory in ⁠March, and that he believes a deal can be made.

“I do believe that there’s a ‌deal ​that should and will be made ‍once this plays out,” Trump’s envoy, Jeff Landry, told Fox News.

“The ‍president is serious. I think he’s laid the ​markers down. ​He’s told ​Denmark what he’s ​looking for, and now it’s a matter of having Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio and Vice President JD Vance make a deal.”

Meanwhile, a ​bipartisan delegation ‌of US lawmakers has met leaders ​of Greenland and Denmark in a bid to bring down the temperature.

The 11-member US delegation, led by Democratic Senator Chris Coons, met Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen as well as Danish and Greenlandic parliamentarians.

“There’s a lot of rhetoric but there’s not a lot of reality in the current discussion in Washington,” Coons told reporters following the meetings, saying the lawmakers would seek to “lower the temperature” on returning home.

Trump has said Greenland is vital to US security because of ​its strategic location and large supply of minerals and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.

European countries this week sent small numbers of military personnel to the island at Denmark’s ⁠request.

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a ‍Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said recent rhetoric about the United States taking over Greenland undermined the NATO military alliance and played into the hands of its main adversaries, Russia and China.

“I know there are real, deep concerns here in Denmark and in Greenland. These concerns are understandable when trust is shaken. But I believe saner heads will prevail,” she said in remarks shared ahead of a speech in Copenhagen.

“And I believe that because institutions are already acting. On both sides of the aisle in Congress, there is overwhelming support for NATO and for the US-Danish relationship,” said Shaheen, whose father was stationed in ​Greenland when serving in the military during World War II.

The delegation in Copenhagen included Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Lisa ‌Murkowski while the rest were Democratic lawmakers.

Marking the occasion, the Greenlandic flag was being flown at the main staircase of the Danish parliament building, Christiansborg, in central Copenhagen.

Demonstrations were scheduled to take place in Danish cities and in the Greenlandic ​capital Nuuk on Saturday in support of Greenland.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urged NATO on Friday to develop “a co-ordinated presence” in the Arctic region to ‍prevent tensions and respond to “interference by other actors”.

But Italian soldiers will not join a European reconnaissance mission in Greenland, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said.

“Greenland. I wonder what for? A trip?” he said on Friday in Rome.

“Fifteen Italians, 15 French, 15 Germans – it sounds like the start of a joke,” Crosetto said of the Danish-led mission in Greenland.

NATO and the United Nations should remain the primary frameworks for managing international security, Crosetto said.

-with AAP/DPA