US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he expected to reach agreements with President Xi Jinping when they meet in South Korea next week that could range from resumed soybean purchases by Beijing to limits on nuclear weapons.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he planned to discuss China's purchases of Russian oil and how to stop Russia's war in Ukraine, now in its third year.

"I think we'll make a deal," Trump told reporters during a meeting with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, adding he believed that Xi had shifted his thinking on the war in Ukraine and would be receptive to a discussion about ending the war.

"He would now like – I'm not sure that he did at the beginning – he would now like that war to end," he said.

The US president downplayed the importance of China's curbs on exports of rare earth magnets that have roiled markets, calling it "a disturbance" and describing tariffs as a "more powerful" issue.

Trump, under pressure from US farmers reeling from big drops in Chinese orders for soybeans, said he expected to reach some agreement with Xi on the issue.

A deal was also possible on nuclear arms, he said, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin had raised the prospect of a bilateral de-escalation of nuclear weapons, and China could be added to that effort.

Trade tensions between the US and China, the world's two biggest economies, flared in recent weeks after months of relative calm.

Trump imposed additional duties of 100 percent on China that are due to take effect on November 1 after China announced export controls on nearly all rare earths.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were headed to Malaysia to defuse tensions over Beijing's rare earth export curbs, as officials in Washington prepared to hit Beijing with fresh measures if no deals are reached.

Reuters reported earlier that the Trump administration is considering a plan to curb a wide range of software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, to retaliate against Beijing, following Trump's threat earlier this month to bar "critical software" exports to China.

Bessent said Greer was already en route to Kuala Lumpur and he would head there later on Wednesday, before joining Trump for the rest of his Asia trip.

The US Treasury chief said he was optimistic that two days of "fulsome" talks with Chinese officials would lay the groundwork for a good meeting of the two leaders, noting that Trump had great respect for Xi.

Washington also announced sweeping new sanctions against two Russian oil companies, but stopped short of imposing tariffs on China, one of the largest buyers of Russian oil, as it has done with India, another big purchaser.

Greer and Bessent have both stressed they do not want to decouple from China, or escalate the situation, but insist the United States needs to rebalance trade with China after decades of very limited access to Chinese markets. (Reuters)