Washington: Signalling newfound bonhomie, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the powerful House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday met face to face for the first time and vowed to unite the party to ensure victory in the November polls.
"The United States cannot afford another four years of the Obama White House, which is what Hillary Clinton represents," Trump and Ryan said in a joint statement after their meeting at the Republican National Committee headquarters near the US Capitol.
The two leaders said they are "totally committed to working together" and called for "shared principles" and a "conservative agenda".
The much anticipated meeting comes a week after Ryan said he is not ready yet to support Trump as the party's presidential nominee.
But, in a softening of stance, Ryan on Tuesday had indicated that he may back Trump after getting to know him better.
Trump, 69, emerged as the party's presumptive presidential nominee after winning the Indiana primary in which he defeated Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Cruz and the other Republican candidate Ohio Governor John Kasich dropped out of the race soon after. "It is critical that Republicans unite around our shared principles, advance a conservative agenda, and do all we can to win this fall," Trump and Ryan said in their statement, according to which the two leaders had a "great conversation".
However, they also acknowledged that their were differences between them. "While we are honest about our differences, we recognise that there are also many important areas of common ground," the statement said.
"We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there is a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal," it said.
"This was our first meeting, but it was a very positive step toward unification," said the statement, which fell short of a formal endorsement of Trump by Ryan.
Ryan said he would work with Trump to prevent Clinton of the Democratic party from entering the White House by winning the November general elections.
"We want to beat Hillary Clinton," Ryan told a crowded news conference at the Capitol Hill soon after his meeting with Trump.
"We had a very encouraging meeting. Look, it's no secret that Donald Trump and I have had our differences. We talked about those differences today. That's common knowledge. The question is: What is it that we need to do to unify the Republican Party and all strains of conservative wings in the party? We had a very good and encouraging, productive conversation on just how to do that," Ryan said.
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