US Vice President Mike Pence met senior European Union officials in Brussels today to deliver messages of support from Donald Trump and to reassure allies worried about the new president's stance on Russia and the European Union.

US President Donald Trump alarmed EU leaders by endorsing Britain's decision to leave the bloc and by suggesting last month that other states might follow. Pence spent the weekend in Germany seeking to reassure Europeans that Trump was committed to the NATO defence pact, but left some unconvinced.

Pence met with European Council President Donald Tusk and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and will meet with the European Commission and NATO later in the day.

The last US ambassador, who was dismissed by Trump as he took office, warned the new administration against reversing decades of postwar U.S. encouragement of European integration and said supporting Brexit was "the height of folly".

Mogherini told Pence that Europeans and the United States had much to work on and that discussions were already under way.

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