London, Jan 20 (IANS): British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump will meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, Downing Street has confirmed.

It comes after Trump cancelled plans to open the new $1 billion US Embassy in London next month, BBC reported on Friday.

The White House said Trump "looks forward" to strengthening the countries' "special relationship".

Trump is the first sitting US president to attend the forum in the Swiss city since Bill Clinton in 2000.

A Downing Street spokesman said the "bilateral meeting" would take place "in the margins" of the forum.

May was the first foreign leader to visit Mr Trump at the White House, after his inauguration in January 2017.

The two leaders also met at the G7 summit in Sicily in may and at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July.

However, in November, the prime minister criticised Trump for retweeting three inflammatory videos posted online by the far-right group, Britain First.

After Mrs May's spokesman said it was "wrong for the president to have done this", he hit back on Twitter and told the British leader to not "focus on me, focus on the destructive radical Islamic terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom".

May more recently discussed Brexit and events in the Middle East in a pre-Christmas phone call with Trump.

Earlier this month Trump said on Twitter the reason why he was not going to cut the ribbon on the the new US embassy in Vauxhall, south London, was because he did not agree with the move from its old home in Mayfair.

However, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan -- who has clashed with the president in the past -- said Trump had "got the message" that many Londoners were staunchly opposed to his policies and actions.

The reason given for moving the US embassy to Vauxhall was that the current building in Mayfair was too small and modern security was needed.