The United States and China have agreed in principle for their presidents to hold a virtual meeting before the end of the year, a senior US administration official said on Wednesday, after high-level talks aimed at improving communication between the two countries.

The closed-door meeting at an airport hotel in the Swiss city of Zurich between US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi was their first face-to-face encounter since an unusually public and acrid airing of grievances in Alaska in March.

US officials had suggested that the meeting was a follow-on from President Joe Biden's Sept 9 call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, prior to which the world's top two economies appeared to have been locked in a stalemate.

The White House said...