Pressure is mounting on broadcaster NBC to cancel Donald Trump's guest-host appearance on this weekend's Saturday Night Live.

A coalition of advocacy groups have delivered petitions to the network calling for him to be dropped from the TV show.

The petitions delivered to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the New York City home of NBC and Saturday Night Live, marked the latest attempts to dissuade the network from allowing the Republican US presidential hopeful to host the show.

The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda had earlier asked NBC to reconsider the decision.

"There's mounting evidence that Donald Trump's racist demagoguery is resulting in real-world violence and physical and verbal intimidation," Mushed Zaheed, deputy political director of Credo Action, one of the participating groups, said.

In advance of the show, NBC released promotional spots featuring Mr Trump that included one in which he refers to a Republican opponent, Ben Carson, as "a complete and total loser".

Mr Trump drew fire early in his campaign when, as the billionaire developer announced his candidacy, he described some Mexicans who are in the US illegally as criminals and rapists, prompting NBC to sever its Miss Universe ties with him while declaring he would never again appear on The Celebrity Apprentice.