US ambassador John Berry has promised his country won't walk away from jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste, and will use everything at their disposal to get him freed.
Hopes that the seven-year jail sentence handed to Mr Greste in Cairo could be overturned have taken a blow, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi saying he won't interfere in judicial matters.
But the US looks set to use their clout with Egypt to assist the Australian government in lobbying for the early release of Mr Greste and his Al Jazeera colleagues.
"We cannot let this decision stand," Ambassador Berry told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
"It is one that the United States condemns with the strongest language."
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with President al-Sisi in Cairo just a day before the court sentenced the journalists, labelled the verdict "chilling and draconian".
The White House has also called on the Egyptian government to pardon the reporters or commute their sentences so that they can be released immediately.
But it's resisting calls to withhold military assistance to Egypt - which recommenced in April after a temporary freeze - to pressure the government over the case.
Ambassador Berry said it wasn't helpful to "personalise conflicts" in times of sensitive diplomacy, and the US would work through every avenue, including by speaking to Egypt's president and working with its legal system.
But the one thing it wouldn't be doing was walking away, he added.
"The United States always uses every tool in its toolbox as effectively as we can to accomplish objectives it desires," he said.
"We'll also be working side by side with our Australian counterparts as they seek to have this decision reversed."
Mr Greste and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues were found guilty on Monday of reporting false news after the 2013 coup that ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
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