Washington DC - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he expects a trade deal to be reached between the US and China during talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as an agreement on nuclear weapons.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he expects to discuss a range of topics with Xi next week, including a resumption of soybean purchases, limits on nuclear weapons, and how to stop the war in Ukraine.

His comments downplayed previously aggressive remarks he made about China's decision to impose curbs on rare earth mineral exports, which served as a contributing factor to his recent tariff hike.

"I think we'll make a deal," Trump said when asked about what he hopes would come out of the meeting.

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"The rare earth is the least of it, look, the tariffs are much more powerful than the rare earth."

Trump argued that rare earths are not so important because he's getting offers from other nations to strike a variety of minerals deals.

"We'll make a deal, I think on, everything," Trump went on. "I think we're going to make a deal on soybeans and the farmers, I think we're gonna make a deal on maybe even nuclear."

"President [Vladimir] Putin in his call mentioned to me about nuclear where we do a de-escalation, and I am fine with that, I think it's good, I think it's a very appropriate thing," Trump said.

He then argued that while China is behind the US and Russia in terms of nuclear weapons, it won't be long until Beijing catches up.

Responding to a question on the war in Ukraine, Trump said that it will be hard but he hopes he can convince China to step up and put pressure on Moscow to end the conflict.

"I think [Xi] can have a big influence on Putin, I think he can have a big influence on a lot of people," Trump said. "We will certainly be talking about Russia and Ukraine."