Washington, Jul 28 (IANS): US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has admitted that President Donald Trump's criticism over his recusal from the Russia investigation has been "kind of hurtful", but insisted that he will continue in the job, the media reported.

"The President of the US is a strong leader," Sessions told Fox News in an interview on Thursday.

"He has had a lot of criticisms and he's steadfastly determined to get his job done, and he wants all of us to do our jobs and that's what I intend to do."

"I serve at the pleasure of the President...If he wants to make a change, he can certainly do so and I would be glad to yield in that circumstance, no doubt about it. But I do believe that we are making tremendous progress," Sessions told Fox News.

Trump has repeatedly slammed Sessions in media interviews and on Twitter over the attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump and Sessions have not yet spoken, though "people have talked about it at the White House", the attorney general said, making clear that he still feels he understands the "mission" of this administration.

Trump told The New York Times last week that Sessions "should have never recused himself. And if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else."

Sessions, in the interview, said that he still believed he "made the right decision" in recusing.

Since his initial comments, the president has refused to say if he'll fire Sessions, telling reporters last week that "time will tell" about the attorney general's fate.