Donald Trump could launch meaningful US action to annex Greenland within "weeks or months", a senior administration official has warned.

Tensions between Mr Trump and NATO have skyrocketed over recent weeks over the desire from the US President to annex the Arctic island. Thomas Dans, Mr Trump's Arctic commissioner, said the President wants to move at "high speed" on the issue and that "things could move on an express basis". He told USA Today: "This is a train route with multiple stops. Things could move on an express basis, skip the local stops and go direct to the main station. That's where President Trump wants to move it − at high speed."

Dans also said that while he thinks there could be noticeable progress on negotiations or a deal on Greenland sooner rather than later, he ultimately expects the acquisition to take longer than that to complete.

"We need to get the people of Greenland on board," he said, referring to polls that show while the majority of Greenland's 57,000 inhabitants want to eventually secede from Denmark, the vast majority do not want Greenland to become the 51st U.S. state. Denmark and Greenland have said Greenland is not for sale.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY AND IS BEING UPDATED....