Trump is making the first visit by a US president to China, its main strategic and economic rival, since his last in 2017, and has been seeking tangible results to beef up his dented approval ratings ahead of crucial midterm elections.

He had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas, not least the Middle East war.

Trump's overtures to Xi, whom he described as a "great leader" and "friend", have so far been met with more muted tones by the Chinese leader.

But the US leader said "a lot of good" has come out of the visit.

"We've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries," he said after a walk with Xi among the rosebushes in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing's Forbidden City.

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"We've settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn't have been able to solve," he added, without providing details.

Xi said it was a "milestone visit", and that the two sides had to date established "a new bilateral relationship, which is a relationship of constructive strategic stability".

He promised to send Trump seeds for the White House Rose Garden.

As the leaders met for tea and lunch, China's foreign ministry issued a blunt statement outlining its frustration with the Iran war.

"This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to continue," the ministry said, adding that China was supporting efforts to reach a peace deal in a war that had severely affected energy supplies and the global economy.

At Zhongnanhai, Trump said the leaders had discussed Iran and felt "very similar", though Xi did not comment.

Trump had been expected to urge China to convince Iran to make a deal with Washington to end a war that has pushed up prices and made him politically vulnerable at home.

But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the US.

Boeing, oil, soybeans

Trump did not spell out on Friday the trade agreements that he said had been sealed with China.

However, in the Fox interview, Trump said one big business deal struck involved Xi agreeing to purchase "200 big" Boeing jets.

Shares of the US aviation giant fell after Trump's comments, in a sign the market had expected a more robust purchase from China.

US officials said they had also agreed deals to sell farm goods, beef and energy to China, with progress on setting up mechanisms to manage future trade, and both sides expected to identify US$30 billion of nonsensitive goods.

There were scant details of the deals, however, and no signs of a breakthrough on selling Nvidia's advanced H200 AI chips to China, despite chief executive officer Jensen Huang's dramatic last-minute addition to the trip.

The US president also said Beijing had also voiced interest in buying US oil and soybeans.

China, which is the key foreign customer of Iranian oil, bought small amounts of US oil before Trump imposed tariffs last year.

It has sharply slowed down purchases of US soybeans, turning instead to Brazil.

And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Trump and Xi were talking about setting up "guardrails" for the use of artificial intelligence.

Bessent said the world's "two AI superpowers are going to start talking", though US export controls on the advanced technology to China remain a sore point in relations.

"For the market, the summit can be strategically reassuring while underwhelming in substance," said Chim Lee, senior China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

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