US President Donald Trump and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani have signed a raft of deals, including a $200 billion agreement with Boeing.

Qatar will purchase 160 jets from the US manufacturer for Qatar Airways. It featured as a wider statement of intent on defence co-operation between the two nations, which also included a letter of offer and acceptance on MQ-9B drones.

During his visit to Doha, Trump signalled the friendship between him and the Emir, stating "we just like each other", as the two agreed to the "largest order of jets" in Boeing's history.

Doha was the second stop on Trump's Middle East, with the US President having earlier announced that he plans to lift sanctions on Syria in a bid to "normalise" relations with the country.

Trump met with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday morning, in the first such encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.

The removal of the sanctions is a significant win for the Syrian government following last year’s fall of the Assad regime and the political and economic uncertainty that has since followed.

“Syria, they’ve had their share of travesty, war, killing in many years. That’s why my administration has already taken the first steps toward restoring normal relations between the United States and Syria for the first time in more than a decade,” Trump said.

Al-Sharaa is the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.

The leaders were joined by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also joined by phone.

Trump said on Tuesday that both the Crown Prince and Erdogan were instrumental in setting up the meeting and in his decision to lift sanctions.

The White House said the US president had agreed to “say hello” to al-Sharaa before he wrapped up his stay in Saudi Arabia and headed to Qatar on Wednesday, where he has been honoured with a state visit.

He is to attend a state dinner in the gas-rich, autocratic nation that is under scrutiny for potentially looking to gift Trump a luxury plane.

Trump's meeting was part of his tour of the Middle East, where he signed a major defence deal with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The White House says Trump offered Sharaa five instructions:

The US had designated Syria a state sponsor of terrorism since 1979 - when Hafez al-Assad, deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad's father, was president.

It placed further restrictions on Syria in 2003, and then ramped up sanctions after the Syrian civil war started in 2011.

The removal of the sanctions is a significant win for the Syrian government, and marks a major turn of events for a country still adjusting to life after the more than 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family.

Since Ahmed al-Sharaa's stunning defeat of dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime in December last year, the new leader has been untiring in his efforts to convince foreign leaders that he represents a new hope for Syria's future.

He met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last week.

But that his meeting with President Trump happened at all is extraordinary.

Under the name Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Sharaa had ties to al-Qaeda and joined insurgents battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by US troops there for several years.

As little as six months ago, the US offered a $10 million reward for Sharaa's arrest.

And he came to power as the head of an insurgent group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham - considered a terrorist organisation by the United Nations.

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