A phone call between US President Donald Trump and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull has called into question a refugee resettlement deal.

The Washington Post reported Mr Trump called the conversation "the worst by far" of his calls with world leaders that day, and cut it short.

Mr Trump later tweeted that he would "study this dumb deal".

Struck with the Obama administration, it would see up to 1,250 asylum seekers to Australia resettled in the US.

Australia has controversially refused to accept them and instead holds them in offshore detention centres on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

PM Turnbull had been seeking clarification on the future of the deal after Mr Trump last Friday signed an executive order temporarily barring the entry into the US of refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries.