US trade talks with China could stretch for “months”, Donald Trump’s top economic adviser said on Thursday, offering the latest indication of a slowdown in the negotiations to end the commercial conflict between the world’s two most powerful economies.

“This is not time-dependent. This is policy- and enforcement-dependent,” Larry Kudlow, the head of the National Economic Council said in Washington on Thursday. “If it takes a few more weeks, or if it takes months, so be it. We have to get a great deal, as the president says, that works for the United States. That’s our principal interest,” he said, according to Bloomberg News.

Mr Kudlow’s comments were made as US negotiators, led by Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, and Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, began a new session of talks with Liu He, China’s vice-premier, in Beijing.