By Liz Lee, Laurie Chen and Xiuhao Chen BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping urged top European Union officials on Thursday to "properly handle differences and frictions" as he criticised Brussels's recent trade actions against Beijing at a tense summit dominated by concerns on trade and the Ukraine war.

The European Union and China are preparing to agree a joint declaration on tackling climate change at a summit in Beijing on Thursday, EU diplomats told Reuters.

Von der Leyen told Xi that the EU’s economic ties with China – running at a trade deficit of 300 billion euro (US$350 billion) last year – had reached “an inflection point.”