WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald

Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Sunday that he

had found a buyer for the TikTok short-video app, which he

described as a group of "very wealthy people" whose identities

he will reveal in about two weeks.

Trump made the remarks in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday

Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" program. He said the deal

he is developing would probably need China's approval to move

forward and he predicted Chinese President Xi Jinping would

likely approve it.

The U.S. president earlier this month had extended to

September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the

U.S. assets of TikTok despite a law that mandated a sale or

shutdown without significant progress.

A deal had been in the works this spring that would have

spun off TikTok's U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based firm,

majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors, but it was put on

hold after China indicated it would not approve it following

Trump's announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

"We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way," Trump said. "I

think I'll need probably China's approval. I think President Xi

will probably do it."

A 2024 U.S. law required TikTok to stop operating by

January 19 unless ByteDance had completed divesting the app's

U.S. assets or demonstrated significant progress toward a sale.

Trump, who credits the app with boosting his support among

young voters in last November's presidential election, has

extended the deadline three times.