Washington DC - Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who supports the annexation of the illegally occupied West Bank, said on Tuesday that he was traveling to the US for a brief visit.

"The goal of this visit is to strengthen economic cooperation between Israel and the United States... and deepen the strategic alliance between our two countries," Smotrich wrote on social media platform X.

His trip comes with US President Donald Trump expected to announce whether to back the annexation of all or part of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

Smotrich, an ultranationalist settler whose support is key to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary majority, said he would meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as other US government officials.

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The visit coincides with an Arab League summit on Tuesday in Cairo, where leaders are discussing a counterproposal to Trump's February 4 plan for US control of Gaza.

Under that plan, Palestinians living in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip would be transferred to third countries, and the coastal territory would be turned into what Trump called "the Riviera of the Middle East."

Asked when unveiling the plan whether he backed Israeli annexation of the West Bank, Trump said he would probably "make an announcement" on the issue within four weeks.

In 2024, the International Court of Justice, the UN's top legal body, issued an advisory opinion saying that Israel's prolonged presence in the West Bank was unlawful.

The United Nations regularly condemns Israel's settlement expansion in the territory as illegal under international law.