WASHINGTON -  An adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has admitted meeting with Russian government officials in 2016, according to a report in the New York Times which cited his testimony before a congressional committee.

Carter Page, a former Navy officer and investment banker who advised Trump on foreign policy, had previously denied or side-stepped the question of whether he had met with Russian officials in previous interviews with the Times, it said.

The development comes days after Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate were placed under house arrest on money-laundering charges linked to an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into allegations that the campaign colluded with Russia.

The US Congress is also conducting three separate investigations into the allegations, which have dogged Trump since his election and which he has strongly denied.

Shortly after a July 2016 trip, Page “sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he had after conversations with government officials, legislators and business executives during his time in Moscow,” the Times reported, quoting a person familiar with the matter.

Page later confirmed the meetings to the Times, and told CNN that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich was among those he met.

But he downplayed the significance of the meetings, telling the Times he had “a very brief hello to a couple of people.”

It is the latest example to emerge of a Trump aide meeting with Russian officials during the 2016 election after initially denying that such contacts occurred. Other officials include Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Following the arrest of Manafort and his protege Rick Gates, Trump said in a tweet that there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia, and noted that the allegations of criminal activity by Manafort came “years ago,” before he joined the campaign.

Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty to charges that they allegedly hid millions of dollars gleaned from work with Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow political party.

Meanwhile, a House of Commons committee investigating “fake news” and its influence on British politics asked Twitter on Friday for details of Russian-linked accounts, days after making a similar request of Facebook.

Damian Collins, the chairman of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, noted evidence the Internet giant had provided to the US Congress about Russian-backed content aimed at meddling in last year’s presidential election.

“During the hearings, it became clear that your organisation has discovered 2,752 accounts related to the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency,” he wrote to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey.

“It has subsequently emerged that some of these accounts were also posting content that relates to the politics of the United Kingdom.

“Any interference by foreign actors in the democratic process of the United Kingdom is clearly a serious matter.”

He asked for “a list of accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency and any other Russian-linked accounts that it (Twitter) has removed and examples of any posts from these accounts that are linked to the United Kingdom”.

Collins asked for the information by the end of November.

The MP wrote to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg last month requesting details “relating to any adverts and pages paid for, or set up by, Russia-linked accounts” relating to last year’s Brexit vote or the June 2017 general election.

Collins told AFP at the time that he plans to hold hearings at the British embassy in Washington early next year, with the aim of having social media bosses appear before the committee.