US President Donald Trump says his administration is talking to seven countries about helping secure the Strait of Hormuz, demanding they help protect ships in the vital waterway that Iran has mostly blocked to oil tankers.
With the conflict creating turmoil across the Middle East and shaking up global energy markets in its third week, Trump said nations relying heavily on oil from the Gulf had a responsibility to protect the strait.
"I'm demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way from Florida to Washington.
Though he declined to identify the governments that his administration has contacted, Trump said last weekend he expected many countries would send warships to allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20 per cent of the world's oil.
He said in a Truth social media post he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would participate.
Australia has already declared it won't send naval ships to the Gulf.
"We won't be sending a ship to the Strait of Hormuz. We know how incredibly important that is, but that's not something that we've been asked or that we're contributing to," minister Catherine King told the ABC.
Trump warned NATO of a "very bad" future if allies didn't help open up the Strait of Hormuz and said he may also delay a planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in comments published by the Financial Times.
"I think China should help too because China gets 90 per cent of its oil from the Straits," Trump told the newspaper, adding he would prefer to know Beijing's position before the planned visit.
"We may delay," he said of the trip.
Trump also said Washington was in contact with Iran but expressed doubt that Tehran was prepared for serious negotiations to end the conflict.
US officials responding to economic uncertainty over high oil prices predicted on Sunday the war on Iran would end within weeks and a drop in energy costs would follow, despite Iran's assertion that it remains "stable and strong" and ready to defend itself.
Trump had threatened more strikes on Iran's main oil export hub Kharg Island over the weekend and said he wasn't ready to reach a deal to end the war which had shut off the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration planned to announce as early as this week that multiple countries had agreed to form a coalition to escort ships through the narrow waterway, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed US officials.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who on Friday said the US Navy would "soon" start escorting oil tankers, has said Iran wants to negotiate, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Sunday disputed that claim.
"We have never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiations," Araqchi told CBS' Face the Nation program.
"We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes."
With crude oil prices hitting to $US105.90 ($A151.53) a barrel on Monday, Trump administration officials insisted that all signs point to a relatively quick end to the conflict.
"This conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks - could be sooner than that ... and we'll see a rebound in supplies and a pushing down of prices after that," US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC's This Week program.
Dubai Media Office said on Monday authorities had extinguished a fire resulting from a droneattack in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport.
"Dubai Civil Defence teams have successfully contained the fire resulting from impact to one of the fuel tanks in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport. No injuries have been reported," it said on X.
with Reuters