WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nippon Steel will no longer seek to purchase U.S. Steel and will instead "invest heavily" in the U.S. company, U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday.

His remarks were echoed by visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who called the investment "mutually beneficial."

The 14.1-billion-U.S. dollar acquisition of Pittsburgh-headquartered U.S. Steel that Nippon Steel has now dropped is a "concept psychologically not good," Trump said at a joint press conference with Ishiba after they finished talks in the White House. "So they've agreed to invest heavily in U.S. Steel, as opposed to own it," he added.

Trump said he "will be there to mediate and arbitrate" when representatives from Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel meet next week to "work out the details" of the investment.

"It is not acquisition, it is investment," Ishiba said through an interpreter, referring to the current nature of the transaction between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel. "So the Japanese technology will be provided (to U.S. Steel), and the better quality products will be manufactured in the United States," he added.

"It is not one-sided. It will be reciprocal. It will be mutually beneficial," the prime minister said of the newly agreed deal.

Ishiba, who in January urged then outgoing President Joe Biden to dispel concerns over Biden's executive order blocking the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel, said a little over half a month afterward that the change of plan "is the biggest result" he could share during his visit to the United States.

Biden blocked the purchase on national security grounds in the final days of his presidency. Trump is also against U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, saying that U.S. Steel "is a very important company to us." Enditem

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