Donald Trump says he will sue the BBC next week after the corporation apologised but declined to compensate him for its edited version of a 2021 speech broadcast by Panorama.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday, the US president said: "We'll sue them for anywhere between one billion dollars ($A1.5 billion) and five billion dollars ($A7.7 billion), probably sometime next week."

The BBC apologised but said it refused to pay financial compensation.

The corporation said the splicing of the speech was an "error of judgment".

Still, it rejected his compensation demands, after Trump's lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.

Mr Trump's lawyers had given the BBC a 10pm Friday deadline to respond.

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