A US government delegation will visit China next week for the first face-to-face talks since US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed on a temporary truce in the trade war, Beijing has confirmed.

The US and China have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $300bn worth of goods in total two-way trade, locking them in a conflict that has begun to eat into profits and contributed to stock market plunges.

Deputy US Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the Washington delegation and will discuss "implementing the important consensus" reached by Mr Trump and Mr Xi at the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina last year, China's commerce ministry said.

Word of the meeting next Monday and Tuesday follows small signs of progress, and the absence of new threats from Mr Trump, while the two sides work to ease trade tension by 1 March.

President Trump initiated the trade war because of complaints over unfair Chinese trade practices, concerns shared by the European Union, Japan and others.

The ceasefire began on 1 December in Buenos Aires after the two heads of state agreed to hold off on further tariffs or retaliation for 90 days.

In December, Beijing's commerce ministry said China and the US "made new progress" on the issues of trade balance and intellectual property, one of the main sticking points of the trade dispute, during a phone call between officials from the two countries.

China's major state-owned grain stockpiler also said it had resumed buying US soybeans, and Beijing announced it would suspend extra tariffs on US-made cars and car parts starting 1 January.

The bruising trade war comes as China grapples with a slowing domestic economy.

Growth is expected by the government to have eased to around 6.5% in 2018, down from 6.9% in 2017.

The country's manufacturing sector has also been hit by the trade dispute, contracting last month for the first time in over two years, according to official data.

US firms that rely on Chinese consumers have also been affected by the country's economic slowdown.

Shares in Apple slid almost 10% after it announced late on Wednesday that it was trimming its sales forecast for the most recent quarter.

It cited steeper-than-expected "economic deceleration" in China, which is one of its largest overseas markets, amid the US-China trade war.