WASHINGTON - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump over his controversial phone call with Ukrainian president.Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Today, I'm announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry," said the Democratic congresswoman from California in a speech, as she concluded a closed-door meeting with the House Democratic Caucus.

Citing Trump's admission this week that he discussed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during the July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian leader, Pelosi said "the actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections."

Pelosi said six House committees will be asked to proceed with the investigations.

"The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law," she said.

Trump responded on Twitter calling the inquiry "a presidential harassment."

The president said the Democrats "never even saw the transcript of the call," adding their decision to impeach him is "a total Witch Hunt!"

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said he authorized the release of the full transcript of the phone call between him and his Ukrainian counterpart.

The president tweeted from New York, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly session, that he has "authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript" of the phone call. "You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call," he added.(FA)