US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping will likely hold a long-awaited call later this week, the White House said Monday, as trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies ratchet back up.

Trump reignited strains with China last week when he accused the world's second-biggest economy of violating a deal that had led both countries to temporarily reduce huge tit-for-tat tariffs.

"The two leaders will likely talk this week," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing when asked whether Trump and Xi would speak.

Trump and Xi have yet to have any confirmed contact more than five months since the Republican returned to power, despite frequent claims by the US president that a call is imminent.

Trump even said in a Time Magazine interv

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