Senior US officials say the United Stated and China have basically agreed to hold a meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.

The officials said on Tuesday the two governments in principle reached an agreement to hold talks between their leaders in San Francisco.

The revelation came as observers are waiting to see if the summit between the two countries will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, forum due to be held in the US city this month.

The officials say arrangements are still underway for details needed to finalize those plans.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday said at a news conference that "With this intense competition, it's always important to have this type of diplomatic conversation."

She added, "it's going to be a constructive meeting, the president is looking forward to it."

If held, the meeting between Biden and Xi would be the first since November last year when they met in Indonesia on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Washington, where he met Biden. Wang also talked with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken there for six hours over two days.