Donald Trump and Xi Jinping 'made tremendous progress' at summit

US President Donald Trump has hailed "tremendous progress" in US summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as he accepted a return invite to China.

Mr Trump, who delivered consistent anti-China rhetoric on the campaign trail last year, said he had developed an "outstanding" relationship with his guest after two days at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The US president pressed President Xi to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear programme and help reduce the gaping US trade deficit with Beijing in Friday's talks.

The presidents said broad progress had been made on a range of issues without detailing the specifics. Credit: AP

While Mr Trump and his team spoke publicly of progress on a range of issues they provided few concrete details.

President Xi earlier said he welcomed cooperation with the United States on trade and investment.

He announced the return invite to Mr Trump as the smiling leaders of the world's two biggest economies made a cordial start to their first meeting.

Donald Trump had warned his first meeting with Xi Jinping would be a 'very difficult one'. Credit: AP

President Trump said the US and China both expected to overcome "many problems" as he signalled a marked U-turn from his routine criticism of Beijing during his campaign to enter the White House.

During the campaign Mr Trump had pledged to stop what he described as the theft of American jobs to China, and last week tweeted ahead of their meeting that it would be "difficult" as the US should "no longer have trade deficits" with the country.

But as the two-day summit came to a close, he told reporters: "We have made tremendous progress in our relationship with China. We will be making additional progress. The relationship developed by President Xi and myself I think is outstanding."

He added: "I believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away."

Mr Trump said his intention for the summit was to raise concerns about China's trade practices, and to urge Xi to do more to control North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes.

President Xi said he had 'built a trust' with Donald Trump. Credit: AP

Mr Trump did not explain what differences had been narrowed between the two countries.

President Xi also spoke in positive but vague terms, saying: "We have engaged in deeper understanding, and have built a trust - a preliminary working relationship and friendship.

"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."