WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would not relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at least for now, thereby reversing a promise that he made to his conservative supporters during the election campaign.

`I hereby determine that it is necessary, in order to protect the national security interests of the United States, to suspend (the move) for a period of six months, he wrote in a letter he sent to the US secretary of state.

`The suspension set forth in this determination shall take effect after you transmit this determination and the required accompanying report to the Congress,` he added.

As America`s chief diplomat, the secretary of state issues the order for moving an old mission or building a new one.

A 1995 law the Jerusalem Embassy Act requires the US State Department to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But every president since 1995 has signed the suspension order at intervals of six months.

The last suspension order, signed by former president Barack Obama, expired on Thursday.

In a separate statement issued with the suspension order, the White House said that `no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the president`s strong supportforIsraeland for the United States-Israel alliance`.

The White House also said that President Trump made the decision to `maximise the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.