The president of the United States on Friday denied using a crude slur to refer to El Salvador, Haiti and African countries during a conversation with senators about a proposed immigration policy overhaul, although he said he did employ tough language.

Donald Trump issued the denial in a tweet, in which he also criticized the proposal presented to him at Thursday's meeting by a bipartisan group of senators and said it would make it more difficult to work out a deal for providing so-called Dreamers - migrants brought illegally to the US as children - with permanent legal status.

Around 690,000 Dreamers are currently able to obtain work permits and are shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which then-head of state Barack Obama created by executive order in 2012.

But Trump in September announced the discontinuation of DACA, giving lawmakers until March 5 (when the program is set to expire) to come up with a permanent legislative solution for these young migrants.

Trump has said any bill to replace DACA should include funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, eliminate the visa lottery program (under which many people from Africa enter the US) and do away with chain migration, whereby permanent residents may bring their relatives into this country from abroad.

In a statement Thursday, a bipartisan group of six senators, who were among those present at the meeting, said they had reached an agreement in principle on legislation to protect Dreamers from deportation while simultaneously boosting border security.

A Senate official requesting anonymity told EFE that the agreement includes more than $1 billion for building a physical barrier along the US-Mexico border, as well as financing for additional border security technology.

The agreement also would provide a path to citizenship for more than a million young undocumented migrants, a figure exceeding the 800,000 people who had been protected under DACA until Trump ended the program last year.

"The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!" Trump tweeted.

The Washington Post reported Thursday night that Trump referred to El Salvador, Haiti and several African nations during the meeting as "shithole countries" and said the US should be taking in people from Norway as opposed to those places.

A new wave of accusations of racism have been leveled against Trump over his remarks.

Trump allegedly made the crude comment when he learned during the meeting that one of the plan's proposals was to provide visas to some citizens of countries - El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan - that have recently been stripped of so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that El Salvador's TPS designation would be allowed to expire on Sept. 9, 2019, a move that could lead to the deportation (or self-deportation) of some 200,000 people who have lived in the US under that program since 2001.

Also Friday, Trump tweeted that he wanted a "merit-based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs."

The president also sent another tweet Friday morning praising the Haitian people.

"Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said 'take them out.' Made up by (Democrats). I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Trump wrote.