The United States and Ukraine are poised to sign a minerals deal, Donald Trump’s national security adviser has said.

Mike Waltz said Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, will soon sign an agreement to hand over much of his country’s rare earth minerals as part of a peace deal to end the war.

Addressing the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Mr Waltz said: “Look, here’s the bottom line, president Zelensky is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term ... that is good for Ukraine,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Mr Zelensky rejected the US offer for $500 billion (£395 billion) in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid. The plan was first revealed in The Telegraph.

Mr Waltz pointed out that it was the Ukrainian president who had first suggested the idea of using the country’s mineral rights to repay America for the billions of defence aid provided to stem the Russian invasion.