Greenland’s government has said the island is “not for sale” after Donald Trump talked to aides about buying the territory from Denmark.

A Trump ally told The Associated Press on Thursday that the president had discussed the purchase but they did not believe he was serious about it.

In statement on the island government’s website, a spokesman said: “We have a good cooperation with USA, and we see it as an expression of greater interest in investing in our country and the possibilities we offer.

Greenland GlaciersA cross sits on the side of the road as fog covers homes in Kulusuk, Greenland (Felipe Dana/AP)

“Of course, Greenland is not for sale.”

It would not be the first time an American leader tried to buy the world’s largest island, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

In 1946, the US proposed to pay Denmark 100 million US dollars to buy Greenland after flirting with the idea of swapping land in Alaska for strategic parts of the Arctic island.

Neither the White House nor Denmark commented on the report which first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.