In his speech expected today at the United Nations, Biden will focus his speech on "intense diplomacy."

A senior US administration official said that President Joe Biden will use his speech at the United Nations - today, Tuesday - to deliver the message that ending the war in Afghanistan will open a new page of "intense diplomacy."

Biden left the White House on Monday afternoon for New York at the start of a week dominated by foreign policy issues, amid questions about his management of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a submarine deal agreement with Australia that angered France.

Biden met with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Monday afternoon, and will deliver his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly as President of the United States on Tuesday, after which he will meet with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Biden then returns to Washington, where he holds a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The official told reporters that Biden wanted to speak by phone with President Emmanuel Macron to discuss France's anger over Australia's scrapping of a multi-billion dollar submarine contract and its preference for a deal with the United States and Britain under which Washington would provide advanced technology for nuclear-powered submarines.

The deal aims to help Australia counter the growing influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region, but it undermined an agreement with France to supply Australia with 12 diesel-powered submarines, and Paris considered canceling the deal a stab in the back.

The official said Biden understood the French position, but did not agree with it.

US officials say Australia has requested US technology.

The speech to the United Nations General Assembly provides Biden's biggest opportunity to talk about the direction of US foreign policy, following criticism of his country's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August, which was poorly planned and left behind some American citizens and Afghan allies who could be exposed. To take revenge on the Taliban who now rule the country.

The official said the withdrawal allows the United States to focus on other priorities.