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Trump presses Xi on trade and N Korea during US-China Florida summit

US President Donald Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jingping to help reduce the gaping US trade deficit with Beijing and to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear programme in the recent talks in Florida, even as he toned down the strident anti-China rhetoric of his election campaign.

Mr Trump spoke publicly of progress on a range of issues in his first US-China summit - as did several of his top aides - but they provided few concrete specifics other than China's agreement to work together to narrow disagreements and find common ground for cooperation.

The US President's aides insisted he had made good on his pledge to raise concerns about China's trade practices and said there was some headway with President Xi agreeing to a 100-day plan for trade talks aimed at boosting US exports and reducing China's trade surplus with the United States.

Speaking after the two-day summit at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said that Mr Xi had agreed to increased cooperation in reining in North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes - though he did not offer any new formula for cracking Pyongyang's defiant attitude.

Last Friday, the unpredictable Mr Trump not only set a different tone but also avoided any public lapses in protocol that Chinese officials had feared could embarrass their leader.

"We have made tremendous progress in our relationship with China," he told reporters as the two delegations met around tables flanked by large US and Chinese flags. "We will be making additional progress. The relationship developed by President Xi and myself I think is outstanding."

"And I believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away," he added, without providing details.

Mr Xi also spoke in mostly positive terms. "We have engaged in deeper understanding, and have built a trust," he said.

"I believe we will keep developing in a stable way to form friendly relations... For the peace and stability of the world, we will also fulfill our historical responsibility."

"Well, I agree with you 100 per cent," Mr Trump replied, reported Reuters.

But in a sign that rough spots remained, Mr Tillerson afterwards described the discussions as "very frank and candid."

Mr Tillerson said Mr Trump had accepted President Xi's invitation to visit China this year and that they also agreed to upgrade a US-China dialogue by putting the two presidents at the head of the forum.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the Chinese had expressed an interest in reducing China's trade surplus as a way of controlling their own inflation. "That's the first time I've heard them say that in a bilateral context," he said.

The highly anticipated US-China summit was upstaged by US missile strikes overnight against a Syrian air base from which Mr Trump said a deadly chemical weapon attack had been launched. It was the first direct US assault on the Russian-backed government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war.

On North Korea, Mr Tillerson said Mr Xi agreed with Trump that North Korea's nuclear advances had reached a "very serious stage."