A senior US official said on Thursday President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will hold a meeting on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

The meeting would be their first engagement in a year. The two leaders held talks in November last year when they attended a G20 summit in Indonesia.

The official says the leaders will discuss the strategic direction in US-China relations and the importance of maintaining dialogue, which involves military officials from both countries.

The official says they will also discuss global challenges, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, along with regional issues.

Other topics Biden and Xi are expected to discuss include human rights in China, Taiwan and the South China Sea, where China is stepping up its maritime activities.

The two countries have been making arrangements for the meeting. In late October, China's top diplomat Wang Yi visited Washington to pave the way for this summit.

The official stresses that the meeting is aimed at managing the competition between the two countries to avoid a risk of the rivalry veering into conflict.