Xi was speaking in Saudi Arabia where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted two "milestone" Arab summits with the Chinese leader which showcased the powerful prince's regional heft.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and economic giant China both sent strong messages during Xi's visit on "non-interference" at a time when the monarchy's relationship with the United States has been tested over human rights, energy policy and Russia.

Any move by Saudi Arabia to ditch the US dollar in its oil trade would be a seismic political move, which officials in Riyadh had previously threatened in the face of possible US legislation exposing OPEC members to antitrust lawsuits.

Deepening economic ties were touted during Xi's visit, where he was greeted with pomp and ceremony and on Friday met with Gulf states and attended a wider summit with leaders of Arab League countries spanning the Gulf, Levant and Africa.

At the start of Friday's talks, Prince Mohammed heralded a "historic new phase of relations with China," a sharp contrast with the awkward US-Saudi meetings five months ago when US President Joe Biden attended a smaller Arab summit in Riyadh.

Although Saudi Arabia and China signed several strategic and economic partnership deals, analysts said relations would remain anchored mostly by energy interests, though Chinese firms have made forays into technology and infrastructure sectors.

Saudi Arabia agreed an MOU with Huawei this week on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities.

The Chinese tech giant has participated in building 5G networks in Gulf countries despite US concerns over a possible security risk in using its technology.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have defied US pressure to limit dealings with China and break with fellow OPEC+ oil producer Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as they try to navigate a polarised world order with an eye on their economic and security interests.

Saudi Arabia is a top oil supplier to China and the two countries reaffirmed in a joint statement the importance of global market stability and energy collaboration, while striving to boost non-oil trade and enhance co-operation in peaceful nuclear power

Xi said China would continue to import large quantities of oil from Gulf Arab countries and expand imports of liquefied natural gas, adding that their countries were natural partners who would co-operate further in upstream oil and gas development.

China would also "make full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade," he said.

China has been lobbying for use of its yuan currency in trade instead of the US dollar.

A Saudi source, speaking before Xi's visit, told Reuters that a decision to sell small amounts of oil in yuan to China could make sense in order to pay Chinese imports directly but "it is not yet the right time".

Most of Saudi Arabia's assets and reserves are in US dollars including more than $US120 billion ($A176 billion) of US treasuries that it holds and the Saudi riyal, like that of other Gulf currencies, is pegged to the US dollar.

Australian Associated Press