Donald Trump and Chinese president set for Florida showdown over trade and North Korea

China has confirmed the dates of President Xi Jinping's trip to the US to meet with Donald Trump.

The foreign ministry in Beijing confirmed that the pair will meet at Trump's luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on April 6 and 7.

Two key issues will be central to the talks, with trade and North Korea both issues that have been raised in recent weeks.

After becoming president in January, Trump's relations with China became strained when he took a call from Taiwan's president, but eased when the US leader reaffirmed the "One China" policy.

The long-standing policy states that there is only one Chinese government, something Trump had threatened in the past and which was further called into question when the US president broke with diplomatic norms in December to accept a call from the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen.

During his election campaign, Trump regularly spoke about how American trade was being stifled by China and this was a key area he pledged to improve on upon taking the White House.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also brought about a cooling in the relationship between the two nations when he suggested that the US should block access to artificial islands that China is building in disputed waters amid a build-up in military presence in the South China Sea.

A series of recent nuclear tests by North Korea has angered both the US and China.

But Trump has said that China "has done little to help" in countering the belligerence of North Korea, a country he said in a tweet was "behaving very badly" and had been "playing the United States for years".

The visit will have a different atmosphere to those of the recent trips from Britain's Theresa May and Germany's Angela Merkel, with President Xi meeting Trump at the billionaire's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida instead of at the White House in Washington.

Xi will be the second world leader to visit the resort after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.