US President Donald Trump said on Monday he is open to three-way arms-control talks with President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin as soon as next month, raising the prospect of an unprecedented meeting.

"We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearisation," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "If President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it. I'm sure we'd talk about other things like trade too."

The Kremlin said earlier that the Russian, Chinese and US leaders could meet at an Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen next month, following a Wall Street Journal report that Putin wanted the three-way talks to broker a peace deal favourable to Moscow.

The three leaders have met separately but never held formal talks together.

"I would do it, not so much for Ukraine, because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much," Trump told reporters when asked if he would attend a meeting with Putin and Xi to discuss Ukraine.

Pressed on whether he would discuss Ukraine at any Xi-Putin summit, Trump replied that he would do "whatever I can do to end the war."

But Trump defended his recent diesel deal with Putin and decision to waive new sanctions on Moscow, which has opened a huge rift with Kyiv and prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to warn the US leader he is on the wrong side of history.

"Zelensky doesn't know what he's talking about," Trump said when asked about the Ukrainian's comments. "To be honest, I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine."

Moscow launched one of its broadest air assaults in months overnight, cutting power to more than half a million households and damaging energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Ten people were reported killed.

Kyiv has accused Washington of withholding vital intelligence and slowing speeds on a satellite system used to track incoming strikes.

Last week, Trump told reporters he thought a denuclearisation deal with Russia and China was possible, but that it "doesn't have to be this year." It's not clear how advanced any talks between the countries are.

Russia has the most stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The ⁠Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired earlier this year. The New START treaty, signed in 2010, allowed a single extension, which Putin and former US President Joe Biden agreed to for five years. Any new extension would require an executive decision to voluntarily extend the limits of the treaty.

China's foreign ministry said last week that its "nuclear strength is by no means at the same level with that of the US and Russia" and that it would be "neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage."

Trump has already agreed to attend the Apec summit in Shenzhen next month, marking his second trip to China this year and his third visit with Xi over the same period. (Agencies)



Edited by Cecil Wong