U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to let rare earth minerals and magnets flow to the United States, a move that could lower tensions between the world's biggest economies.

Beijing has approved more export licenses for the critical minerals and magnets in recent days, but supplies remain scarce and factories in the West are running out.

China has approved temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top US automakers, Reuters reported on Friday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.