My handshake with Trump is proof I'm no pushover, says Macron

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron. Photo / AP

Emmanuel Macron has declared victory over Donald Trump, saying that his ability to defeat the US President in the handshake challenge was a "moment of truth" which showed that the French leader was no pushover.

The 39-year-old gripped his much older counterpart's hand so firmly when they met for the first time ahead of a Nato summit in Brussels this week that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench.

The pair looked each other fixedly in the eyes, and for a moment it looked like neither man wanted to be the first to end the manly clench, the Daily Telegraph reports.

But in the end it was Trump who appeared to relent and loosen his fingers.

Macron, who was elected this month, said that his approach to the meeting had been about getting respect.

"Donald Trump, the Turkish President or the Russian President see things in terms of power relationships, which doesn't bother me," the centrist leader told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

"I don't believe in diplomacy through public criticism but in my bilateral dialogues I don't let anything pass. That is how you get respect," he said.

The US leader's dominating hand contact with foreign heads of state has been closely scrutinised since he came to power last year, with his yanking of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's hand towards him being one of the most striking incidents.

Macron's apparent victory over Trump in the handshake challenge will help burnish his credentials on the international stage.

He has been keen to dispel doubts about his presidential stature that have dogged him since he launched a wild-card presidential bid just six months ago.

But his toughest test so far is likely to come tomorrow, when he welcomes to Paris Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country's role in Syria and Ukraine has sparked tension, and who openly supported Macron's presidential far-right rival Marine Le Pen.