United States President Donald Trump's grandchildren serenaded Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan with a traditional Chinese folk song and a recital of Chinese poetry during the presidents' first meeting.

Ivanka Trump's children, Arabella and Joseph, aged five and three respectively, were filmed singing to the smiling guests.

The kids sang a Chinese folk song Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower), and also recited the San Zi Jing or Three Character Classic, a Chinese classic text, Lianhe Zaobao reported on Saturday (April 8).

Arabella also recited a Tang dynasty poem, while little Joseph appeared shy at the end and clung to his father, Jared Kushner.

Ms Trump tweeted a 54sec clip of the song at 7.20am Singapore time on Saturday.

She wrote that she was "very proud of Arabella and Joseph for their performance in honour of President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan's official visit to the US!"

The tweet, which was retweeted by Mr Trump, has more than 30,000 likes and 5,300 retweets so far.

Arabella is well-liked by Chinese netizens, and has previously been filmed reciting Chinese poetry and singing a song for Chinese New Year.

Mr Xi was at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, for a meeting that got off to a cordial start.

It was later overshadowed by an air strike that the US president ordered on Syria.