FILE PHOTO - Steven Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, speaks at the Wall Street Journal Digital conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S. October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc CEO Steven Mollenkopf said on Thursday he hoped an announced agreement between the United States and China on the future of ZTE Corp will pave the way for China clearing Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV.

“I hope it means something good to us, but we are really focused more on our individual application,” Mollenkopf told The Deal’s annual corporate governance conference in New York.

Sources familiar with the matter had told Reuters that approval of the Qualcomm/NXP deal would depend on the progress of broader bilateral talks and the unwinding of a U.S. government ban on sales by U.S. companies to ZTE.

Qualcomm and NXP shares began trading in New York on Thursday up 4.5 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

(This version of the story has been refiled to drop reference to sources from the headline)