Xi-Obama dinners 'a very constructive' way for 2 to engage

US President Barack Obama feels that dinners with President Xi Jinping in recent years have been the most constructive engagement between the two leaders, according to a senior Obama adviser.

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said the US president has developed a good relationship with President Xi. "That doesn't mean we agree with everything Xi does, but I think they have been able to have constructive conversations," Rhodes said on Tuesday afternoon during a conference call on Xi's state visit.

Rhodes, who has attended many meetings between the two leaders, described formal meetings as sitting down, going through a long list of agenda items and stating each other's position on issue after issue.