"The warmth was there ... there was sincerity," Aquino told a select group of Filipino journalists in Beijing, where he was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic and Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Aquino attended a tree-planting ceremony on the outskirts of Beijing, and had informal talks with Xi for about 10 minutes afterwards.
"There was factual layout of the ... issues, where we were, where we are and where we will be. (On) most of the general points, we had a meeting of the minds," Aquino said.
"South China Sea was mentioned in passing ... There was mention of finding constructive ways to solve this," he added.
The talks were held on China's initiative, a senior diplomat told Reuters, requesting anonymity.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying he hoped the two sides would "move in the same direction and constructively deal with it".
Read more at Reuters
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