Argentine official denies president discussed new Trump tower

An official in Argentina's government denied Monday that Donald Trump had asked President Mauricio Macri to approve a building project by one of his companies in Buenos Aires.

Macri's government was under pressure to respond to a report that the US president-elect made the request when the two spoke on the telephone after the outspoken magnate's shock election win this month.

The claim was made by prominent Argentine journalist Jorge Lanata in a television show on Sunday.

A close advisor to Macri who asked not to be named told AFP on Monday that Trump did not "in any way" make such a request to the president.

"All they talked about was maintaining relations between their two countries," said the official.

The adviser added that Trump and Macri also "recalled the personal relations they had years earlier" when they met as fellow real estate businessmen in New York in the 1980s.

YY Development Group, a partner in Trump's real estate empire, is planning to build a 35-floor office building in central Buenos Aires, sources in the company said.

Macri said after calling Trump last week that he hoped for a "constructive relationship" with the new US president.

A source in Buenos Aires city hall told AFP it had "nothing to say" about the building project.