NEW YORK: US President-elect Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to step back from running his global business empire to avoid conflicts of interest but gave few immediate details as concern over his dual role mounts ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Trump, a real estate magnate who owns hotels and golf resorts from Panama to Scotland, said he would spell out at a Dec. 15 news conference how he will separate himself "in total" from his worldwide business holdings, which include a winery, modelling agency and a range of other businesses.

After Trump won the Nov. 8 election, his company, the Trump Organization, had said it was looking at new business structures with the goal of transferring control to Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump - three of his adult children who are involved with the company.

Trump gave few details in a series of early morning tweets but said that "legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations" and that his children would attend the news conference. He did not say what the planned change might mean for ownership of his businesses.

Although Trump's fellow Republicans generally take a more laissez faire stance toward business than Democrats, the president-elect will travel to Indiana on Thursday to formally announce a deal he reached with United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) to keep close to 1,000 jobs at its Carrier Corp air conditioner plant in Indianapolis rather than have them moved to Mexico.

Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, railed against Carrier on the campaign trail, using the company's outsourcing move as an example of how trade agreements hurt American workers.

'HE NEEDS TO SELL THE BUSINESSES'

Critics have raised questions about the role of Trump's children, who are on the executive committee of his White House transition team. His daughter Ivanka joined a telephone call her father had with Argentine President Mauricio Macri earlier this month and attended a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, creating concerns about possible conflicts of interest.

A brand name around the globe, Trump previously argued he had no need to separate himself from the Trump Organization, which includes a hotel down the street from the White House, a Manhattan tower where he lives and is running his transition to office, and a New Jersey golf course where he interviewed Cabinet candidates earlier this month.

Trump said on Wednesday he was not required by law to alter his relationship with his business, but added: "I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses."