US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he expected a "lot of problems" to be solved with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in their talks on dialling down their hugely damaging trade war.

The US leader said he expected their first face-to-face meeting of his second term scheduled on Thursday to result in the United States lowering tariffs imposed on China in relation to fentanyl.

"I think we're going to have a great meeting with President Xi of China, and a lot of problems are going to be solved," Trump said en route to South Korea where he is due to meet with Xi, saying he is "optimistic".

"We have been talking to them, we're not just walking into the meeting cold... I think we're going to have a very good outcome for our country and for the world actually," he said on Air Force One.

He

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