SHANGHAI: The yuan touched a near one-month high against the dollar on Monday as weekend talks between senior Chinese and US officials raised hopes the two sides may find ways to start ironing out a host of disputes. Currency traders said the market largely shrugged off broad dollar strength over expectations for US Federal Reserve's stimulus tapering from next month, as investors focusing more on recent developments in Sino-US relations. China said on Saturday it pressed the United States to eliminate tariffs in talks between the countries' top trade officials that Washington saw as a test of bilateral engagement between the world's biggest economies.

Trade disputes between Beijing and Washington have been one of the key factors influencing the Chinese currency over the past few years.

Rising expectations of a possible partial removal of US trade tariffs lent support to the yuan, said Tommy Xie, head of Greater China research at OCBC Bank.