The British Broadcasting Corporation has sent a personal apology to US President Donald Trump but says there was no legal basis for him to sue the public broadcaster over a documentary his lawyers called defamatory.

The documentary, which aired on the BBC's Panorama news program just before the US presidential election in 2024, spliced together three parts of Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol. The edit created the impression he had called for violence.

"While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim," the broadcaster said in a statement on Thursday,

Lawyers for the US president threatened on Sunday to sue the BBC for damages of up to $US1 billion ($A1.5 b

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