The White House has confirmed that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been invited to Washington DC to meet with US president Donald Trump on Sept 12.

"President Trump looks forward to celebrating the 60th anniversary of US-Malaysia bilateral relations and... expand regional cooperation with one of America's closest partners in Southeast Asia," the White House said in a statement.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to Najib, said the Malaysian prime minister was keen to emphasise friendship with Trump at a time of US investigations into money laundering allegations involving 1MDB.

The WSJ said the sources indicated that Najib would likely use the White House visit to play down the possibility of further investigations.

Since 2016, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has been pursuing assets allegedly bought with money misappropriated from 1MDB. The DOJ said Malaysians were defrauded and that it sought to return the monies to Malaysia.

However, Malaysian authorities and 1MDB have dismissed the DOJ's claim, saying that no money was missing.

Malaysia is increasingly involved in a tug-of-war between the US and China, both of which seek to expand their influence in the region, particularly in the wake of the South China Sea dispute.

Najib's reported plans to visit the US comes amid speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinping will be visiting Malaysia later this year.

At the time of writing, there has been no confirmation of a visit by Xi.

Since the US invstigation into the 1MDB funds, Najib has appeared to have pivoted towards China.

During his visit to China in November last year, Najib lashed out at "former colonial powers" in a commentary published by China Daily.

"More generally, we believe it is incumbent upon larger countries to treat smaller ones fairly. And this includes former colonial powers. It is not for them to lecture countries they once exploited on how to conduct their own internal affairs today," wrote Najib.