* Talks in Paris seek to tee up proposals for Trump, Xi

to consider in Beijing

* China open to additional purchases of U.S. agriculture

goods -sources familiar with talks

* U.S., China said to explore new mechanisms for managing

trade, investments

* Trump tells FT he may delay meeting with Xi over Hormuz

strait closure

By David Lawder

PARIS, March 16 (Reuters) - Top U.S. and Chinese

economic officials were due to conclude talks in Paris on

Monday, with potential areas of agreement in agriculture,

critical minerals and managed trade that could be taken up by

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in

Beijing, sources familiar with the discussions said.

The sources told Reuters that the "remarkably stable" talks

led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice

Premier He Lifeng would set in motion possible "deliverables"

for Trump's expected trip to China at the end of March to meet

with Xi.

But they added that the leaders would have the final say on

the proposals.

Trump, however, told the Financial Times in an interview

published on Sunday that he could also delay his summit with Xi

later this month as he presses Beijing to help unblock the

crucial Strait of Hormuz closed by Iran.

"We may delay," he said of the trip.

The U.S. and Chinese delegations met for more than six hours

on Sunday at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for

Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of mostly wealthy

democracies that does not count China as a member.

During those discussions, the Chinese side showed openness

to potential additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods

including poultry, beef and non-soybean row crops, one of the

sources said, adding that China was still committed to buying 25

million metric tons of American soybeans for each of the next

three years under the Trump-Xi October 2025 trade truce.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Trade

Representative's office declined to characterize the

discussions, while Chinese officials left the talks on Sunday

without speaking to reporters.

"Meaningful" progress in Sino-U.S. economic cooperation

could restore confidence to an increasingly fragile global

economy, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said in a

commentary on Sunday.

The Paris talks follow several meetings to ease tensions

last year between Bessent, He, U.S. Trade Representative

Jamieson Greer and Chinese chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang.

MANAGED TRADE MECHANISM

The two sides discussed the establishment of new formal

mechanisms to help manage trade and investment between the

world's two largest economies that may be considered by Trump

and Xi in Beijing, the sources said. Technical talks on the

proposed U.S.-China "Board of Trade" and "Board of Investment"

were expected on Monday.

One of the sources said that the Board of Trade was the more

developed of the two proposals, and would be aimed at finding

products and sectors where the U.S. and China could grow trade

in a balanced way without compromising each other's national

security or critical supply chains.

The Board of Investment would not set broad investment

policies but would address "discrete investment issues" that may

arise between the countries, the source said.

CRITICAL MINERALS, ENERGY

The sources also said U.S. officials discussed the flow of

Chinese-produced critical minerals to U.S. companies and raised

concerns about the U.S. aerospace industry's lack of access to

yttrium from China, which is used in jet engine turbines, among

other applications.

One of the sources said the two sides "found some ways to

loosen up" more challenging areas in critical minerals, but did

not provide specifics.

Before the talks, Greer had told CNBC on Friday that the

U.S. wanted "to make sure that we continue to get the rare

earths we need for our manufacturing base, that they keep buying

the kinds of things they should be buying from us, and that the

leaders have a chance to get together and make sure that the

relationship is going the way we want it to go."

Greer and Bessent also emphasized in the talks the U.S.

desire for China to increase purchases of Boeing ( BA )

jetliners and U.S. coal, oil and natural gas, which could be

further discussed on Monday, the sources said.

But with little time to prepare and Washington's attention

focused on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, prospects for such

major trade breakthroughs were limited, in Paris or at the

Beijing summit, trade analysts said.

"Given that the leaders may meet up to four times this year,

these deliverables maybe can be spread out, rolled out over the

year," said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator who now

heads the Asia Society's Washington policy center.

These meetings include a potential visit to Washington for

Xi, a China-hosted APEC summit in November and a U.S.-hosted G20

summit in December.