Malcolm Turnbull could meet Donald Trump face-to-face for a second time next month when he leads a delegation of Australian premiers and business chiefs to the US.
The prime minister alongside the leaders of NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria are attending the powerful National Governors Association's winter gathering in Washington DC from February 23.
Any meeting between Mr Turnbull and Mr Trump could take place during this time after the White House "informally" signalled the president's openness to a meeting, The Australian reported on Thursday.
So far, neither government has commented publicly on the prospect of a meeting between the leaders.
The prime minister's US trip comes ahead of Australia's preparations to sign an 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in March.
The TPP has been revived after negotiations were last year thrown into disarray when Mr Trump pulled the US out after describing the deal as "a continuing rape of our country".
On Wednesday, the prime minister said that while he would encourage the US to come back to the TPP, he didn't think there was "any prospect" it.
"It's important to recognise that President Trump made a very straightforward, a very committed election promise not to proceed with the TPP," Mr Turnbull said.
The tweaked trade pact, which includes Japan, New Zealand and Canada, is expected to be signed on March 8 in Chile.
Mr Trump and Mr Turnbull's relationship got off to a rocky start with a testy 2017 phone call between the pair after the president moved into the White House.
It ended abruptly when the prime minister pushed Mr Trump on a deal struck in 2016 when Barack Obama was president for the US to accept some of the refugees being held at detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.
In May last year, Mr Turnbull met with Mr Trump in New York on the sidelines of an event to honour the 75th anniversary of the US-Australian victory over Japan in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The National Governors Association winter meeting on one of two the group holds each year to discuss issues facing the US and discuss policy.
