US President Joe Biden met Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time in a year on Wednesday for talks aimed at easing friction between the two superpowers over military conflicts, drug-trafficking and artificial intelligence, and said they had made "real progress."

After the meeting both leaders walked through the garden at the Filoli estate, a country house about 48 km south of San Francisco, where they will move later for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Biden said the US and China had to ensure that competition between them "does not veer into conflict" and manage their relationship "responsibly." He said issues such as climate change, counter-narcotics and AI demanded their joint attention.

After a morning session of talks and before heading into lunch with Xi, Biden said on social media platform X, it was vital they understood each other "leader to leader."

(Production: Gerardo Gomez)