The Latest: Trump says he'll meet China's Xi at G-20 meeting

The Latest on China and President Donald Trump (all times local):

2:50 a.m. Saturday

President Donald Trump says he will meet his Chinese counterpart alongside the Group of 20 meetings in Argentina as they look to curb a burgeoning trade war.

Trump says he will have dinner with President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) of China at the summit of industrial and emerging market nations in what would be their first meeting since both countries imposed escalating rounds of tariffs on goods.

Trump says of China: "I know they want to make a deal."

He adds that any deal reached must be "fair."

Trump has railed against the U.S. trade imbalance with China since his presidential campaign and his administration has grown increasingly vocal about calling out alleged corporate espionage and intellectual property theft by Chinese entities.

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3:50 p.m. Friday

China's foreign ministry says a phone conversation between President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, about trade and other issues was "extremely positive."

The ministry said Friday the two leaders agreed to "strengthen economic exchanges" but gave no indication whether they made any progress on settling an escalating tariff war over Beijing's technology policy.

Trump said earlier on Twitter that he and Xi had a "very good" conversation.

A foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said, "I agree, this phone conversation was an extremely positive phone conversation."