Washington, United States

US President Joe Biden has said his predecessor Donald Trump has left him a "very generous" letter in the Oval Office before departing the White House.

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Biden told reporters that he will not reveal the content of the letter as it was private but he plans on talking to Trump about it.

It is customary for outgoing presidents to write their successors a letter and leave it for them on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

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However, given that the former president broke several of the past traditions, including by opting to skip Biden's inauguration ceremony and never formally congratulated him on his election win, it was unclear until Wednesday whether Trump would maintain the tradition of outgoing presidents leaving notes for their successors.

In her maiden news briefing on Wednesday night, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that she was with Biden when he was reading the letter in the Oval Office right before he signed the executive actions.

However, she declined to offer more details on the letter, saying, it "was private, as he (Biden) said to you all".

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"It was both generous and gracious, and it was just a reflection of him not planning to release the letter unilaterally, but I wouldn't take it as an indication of a pending call with the former president," Psaki said.

Psaki addressed other issues during the Biden administration's first White House briefing. She told reporters she has a "deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy."

She also said Biden will leave the mechanics of how to proceed with former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial to the US Senate.

"We are confident that ... the Senate ... can do their constitutional duty while continuing to conduct the business of the American people," Psaki told reporters. "He's going to leave the mechanics, the timing and the specifics of how Congress moves forward on impeachment to them."

Biden, a Democrat, was sworn in earlier on Wednesday, a week after the US House of Representatives impeached Trump for a second time, charging him with inciting an insurrection in the deadly rampage at the Capitol on January 6.