Pressure mounts on Jeff Sessions amid claim he discussed campaign with Russian ambassador to the US

Pressure on Jeff Sessions, the under fire US Attorney General mounted amid claims that, despite his denials,  he discussed the election campaign last year with the Russian ambassador to Washington.

Within hours or Donald Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, resigning, the position of another key member of his administration was looking increasingly vulnerable.

The Washington Post reported that the US intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Sergey Kislyak and Moscow, detailing two conversations with Mr Sessions regarding the election.

At the time Mr Sessions was an Alabama senator and one of the first members of Congress to back Donald Trump's bid for the White House.

The latest allegations come within days of the president rounding on his Attorney General in an interview with the New York Times for recusing himself from a Justice Department inquiry into reported links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mr Sessions had to step aside after it emerged that he had failed to disclose the meetings with Mr Kislyak.

The last month, appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, he described his meetings with the ambassador as little more than "an encounter".

During heated exchanges, he angrily denied trying to work with the Russians to influence the outcome of the election.

“The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honour for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie,” he said.

But according to the Washington Post Mr Kislyak painted a very different picture.

One intelligence official told the paper that the intercepts suggest the two men had "substantive discussions" on a range of issues including US-Russian relations should Mr Trump win the election.

"If these reports are corroborated they are clearly damaging to Jeff Sessions, in fact devastating," Dick Blumenthal, a Democrat senator from Connecticut, said on CNN.

"They demonstrate he was clearly untruthful in his confirmation hearing," he added.

Responding to the allegations, Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said: "Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources described in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me.”