Mexican President Peña Nieto cancels Trump meeting

US President Donald Trump's meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will not be going ahead after the latter cancelled his trip to Washington following a war of words about the construction of a wall on America's southern border.

On Wednesday Trump said that work would commence on the wall within a matter of months, with US taxpayers initially footing the bill, before the country would force Mexico to reimburse the cost.

Peña Nieto responded defiantly on Thursday following Trump's stern remarks, flat out rejecting that his country would pay for the wall's construction.

He announced later on Thursday via Twitter that he would not attend the scheduled summit with newly-inaugurated President Trump.

"This morning we informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the @POTUS," Peña Nieto tweeted.

The Mexican President followed up by saying that his country "reiterates its willingness to work with the United States in order to reach agreements in favour of both nations".

The US dollar rose strongly to 21.326 against the Peso following the news on Thursday.