* Talks seen focused on tariffs, rare earths, high-tech

export controls, and agriculture

* Analysts see little prospect for breakthrough amid

shortened preparations due to Iran war

* New US trade probes could lead to more tariffs on China

By David Lawder and Elizabeth Howcroft

PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) - Top U.S. and Chinese

economic officials wrapped up the first of two days of talks in

Paris on Sunday to iron out kinks in their trade truce and clear

a path for U.S. President Donald Trump's trip to Beijing to meet

with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of March.

The discussions, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott

Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, were expected to

focus on shifting U.S. tariffs, the flow of Chinese-produced

rare earth minerals and magnets to U.S. buyers, American

high-tech export controls and Chinese purchases of U.S.

agricultural products.

The two sides met for more than six hours at the Paris

headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development, with talks to resume on Monday morning, a Treasury

spokesperson said. China is not a member of the club of 38

mostly wealthy democracies and considers itself a developing

country.

The spokesperson did not provide any details on the tone or

substance of the talks, and Chinese officials left the OECD

without speaking to reporters.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who is

participating in the talks, said on Friday that U.S. officials

want to ensure stability in the U.S.-China relationship.

"We want 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 told CNBC

before departing for Paris.

The talks between Bessent, He, Greer and China trade

negotiator Li Chenggang follow a string of their meetings in

European cities last year to ease trade tensions that threatened

a near collapse of trade between the world's two largest

economies.

U.S.-China trade analysts said that with little time to

prepare and Washington's attention focused on the U.S.-Israeli

war on Iran, prospects for a major trade breakthrough are

limited, in Paris or at the Beijing summit.

"Both sides, I think have a minimum goal of having a

meeting, which sort of keeps things together and avoids a

rupture and re-escalation of tensions," said Scott Kennedy, a

China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and

International Studies in Washington.

Trump may want to come away from Beijing with major Chinese

commitments to order new Boeing ( BA ) aircraft and buy more

U.S. liquefied natural gas and soybeans, but to get that he may

need to offer some concession on U.S. export controls, Kennedy

added.

Trump and Xi could potentially meet three other times this

year, including at a China-hosted APEC summit in November and a

U.S.-hosted G20 summit in December that could yield more

tangible progress.

IRAN WAR OIL CONCERNS

The Iran war will likely come up at the Paris talks,

especially in reference to the spike in oil prices and the

closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which China gets 45% of

its oil. Bessent on Thursday announced a 30-day waiver of

sanctions to allow the sale of Russian oil stranded at sea in

tankers, a move to raise supplies.

On Saturday, Trump urged other nations to help protect

shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, after Washington bombed

military targets on Iran's Kharg Island oil loading hub and Iran

threatened to retaliate.

"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.

TRADE TRUCE REVIEW

The two sides are expected to review their progress in

meeting commitments under the October 2025 trade truce declared

by Trump and Xi in Busan, South Korea. The deal forestalled a

major flare-up in tensions, trimmed U.S. tariffs on Chinese

imports, and paused for a year China's draconian export controls

on rare earths. It also paused the expansion of a U.S. blacklist

of Chinese companies banned from buying high-technology U.S.

goods such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

China also agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S.

soybeans during the 2025 marketing year and 25 million tons in

the 2026 season, which will start with the autumn harvest.

U.S. officials, including Bessent, have said China has so

far met its commitments under the Busan deal, citing soybean

purchases that met initial goals.

But while some industries are receiving rare earth exports

from China, which dominates global production, U.S. aerospace

and semiconductor companies are not and are facing worsening

shortages of key materials, including yttrium, used in

heat-resistant coatings for jet engines.

"U.S. priorities will likely be about agricultural purchases

by China and greater access to Chinese rare earths in the short

term" at the Paris talks, said William Chou, a senior fellow at

the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.

NEW TRADE PROBES

Greer and Bessent also bring a new irritant to the Paris

talks, a "Section 301" investigation into unfair trade practices

targeting China and 15 other major trading partners over alleged

excess industrial capacity that could lead to a new round of

tariffs within months. Greer also launched a similar probe into

alleged forced labor practices in 60 countries, including China,

that could impose new tariffs on countries that fail enforce

laws to combat forced labor.

The probes aim to rebuild tariff pressure on trading

partners after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump's global

tariffs under an emergency law as illegal. The ruling

effectively reduced Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods by 20

percentage points, but he immediately imposed a 10% global

tariff under another trade law.

China on Friday denounced the probes and said it reserved

the right to take countermeasures. An editorial by state-run

China Daily added that the probes were representative of

unilateral actions that complicate negotiations.

"The new round of talks is both an opportunity and a test,"

Xinhua said.

"Whether the upcoming talks can achieve progress will

largely depend on the U.S. side. Washington needs to approach

the negotiations with a rational and pragmatic mindset and act

in line with the principles that underpin stable China-U.S.

economic relations."