Donald Trump asked Xi Jinping "at one point" whether China was interested in buying American weapons, the US envoy to Beijing said on Sunday.

In an interview with Fox News, ambassador David Perdue said: "President Trump continues to say: hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He actually asked President Xi would he like to buy some at one point?"

The comment came in response to questions about whether Trump had delayed the approval of a record $14bn arms-sale package for Taiwan in an effort to appease Xi and avoid derailing his meetings with the Chinese leader.