Arab Finance: The US and China have agreed to extend their trade truce by two months beyond its scheduled expiration on November 10, giving the two sides more time to work toward a potentially broader trade agreement, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

Bessent made the comments on Fox News after holding his second meeting in four days with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24.

"We met today to see if we could do a bigger deal as opposed to just a series of smaller things," Bessent said, adding that the two-month extension of the trade truce agreed in Busan, South Korea, in May would give Washington and Beijing "more time to see what we can do on the economic front."

Bessent told reporters earlier that Beijing had raised the prospect of a broader US-China trade agreement during 12 hours of talks on Sunday, but he provided no details on its potential scope. Wednesday's meeting lasted about 90 minutes, according to the Treasury Department.

Asked whether a deal could be negotiated by January 10, Bessent told Fox News that it was not yet clear, while adding that Washington was also pressing Beijing to be "a bit more fulsome" in meeting its commitments under the existing agreement in the coming months.

Bessent said China was meeting its commitment to purchase 25 million tons of soybeans but was lagging behind on a pledge to buy $17 billion in other agricultural goods.

US officials said last week that China's deliveries of rare earths were also lagging.

Thursday's summit, the second of potentially four meetings between Trump and Xi this year, could result in announcements on the two countries' goal of removing tariffs on $30 billion worth of non-critical goods, as well as on financial services and agricultural purchases, Bessent said.