Donald Trump repeatedly urged Ukraine's new leader to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, a memo of a telephone call shows.
In the call, the US president raised unsubstantiated allegations that former vice president Mr Biden sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor's investigation into his son Hunter.
Speaking to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mr Trump said: "There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that."
In the days before the phone call, Mr Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400m (£323m) in military aid for Ukraine, prompting speculation that he was holding out the money as leverage for information on the Bidens.
A whistleblower complained about a 30-minute conversation between the two leaders which took place on 25 July.
In his first solo news conference since the proceedings were brought against him, Mr Trump defended the call, saying it was "perfect".
Mr Trump went on to say the phone call was the second with Mr Zelenskiy and that if the press keep asking for it, he will release the first phone conversation.
He said he "fully supports transparency" but expects scrutiny of Mr Biden. The president tweeted to say he "also insist[s] on transparency from Joe Biden and his son Hunter".
Earlier in the day, at a joint news conference between the leaders of both countries in New York, the Ukrainian president echoed Mr Trump's denials by insisting he was not pressured by his American counterpart - and attempted to limit his involvement in the row.
Mr Zelenskiy said: "I think you read everything. I am sorry, but I don't want to be involved in [the] democratic elections of USA.
"We had a good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things... nobody pushed it."
Mr Trump is under pressure to release the complaint and a full transcript of the telephone call.
The complaint and Mr Trump's then-refusal to provide information prompted top Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday to officially launch an impeachment inquiry.
She announced the House of Representatives will examine whether Mr Trump sought Ukraine's help to smear Mr Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
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