China confirms Vice Premier Liu to visit U.S. for trade talks Jan. 30-31

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the next round of trade negotiations with Washington, China's commerce ministry said on Thursday, confirming earlier reports of the planned talks.

Liu's scheduled visit follows lower-level negotiations held in Beijing last week aimed at resolving a bitter trade dispute between the world's two largest economies ahead of a scheduled March 2 escalation of U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng confirmed Liu's visit during a weekly press briefing.

A source familiar with White House planning for the negotiations said this week that Liu had accepted an invitation to go to Washington for talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the last two days of January.

(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Tony Munroe; editing by Darren Schuettler)