Biden 'looks forward' to Macron call amid submarine row: US official

US President Joe Biden "looks forward" to speaking with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron by telephone after relations fractured over Washington's nuclear submarine deal with Australia, a senior US official said on Monday.

Biden wants to talk with Macron "about the way forward," the official said, after Paris recalled its US ambassador over the deal which killed a massive planned French sale of submarines to Australia.

"We understand the French position. We don't share their view," the official said, amid accusations by France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian that it was "stabbed in the back," in the US-Australia agreement.