Chicago grains slip with Black Sea diplomacy and US-China trade in focus

PARIS/CANBERRA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chicago grain futures fell on Friday, led by a more than 2% slide for wheat, with prices pressured by diplomatic efforts to ease war disruption to Black Sea exports and by a lack of new agricultural deals during a U.S.-China summit.

The most-traded wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 2.4% at $6.90-1/4 a bushel at 1118 GMT, as it fell below the $7 threshold for the first time in a month.

"The wheat market continues to face bearish pressures, driven largely by renewed diplomatic efforts between Russia and Ukraine that could potentially ease Black Sea export disruptions," British merchant Frontier Agriculture wrote.

This week's UN General Assembly has put attention on efforts to achieve de-escalation in Russia's 4-1/2-year-old war with Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday the United States had proposed that the United Arab Emirates host a trilateral meeting with Ukraine and Russia to discuss efforts to end the conflict, while the Kremlin said a trilateral meeting could happen soon.

Attempts by Turkey to broker a Black Sea truce have also generated expectations of a possible improvement in shipping flows.

Despite market scepticism over diplomatic prospects given continued attacks, large long positions held by investors and a cautious approach by wheat importers have further deprived prices of fresh support following three-year highs in early September, according to traders.

A two-month high for the dollar index this week, before it eased back on Friday, has also curbed export prospects for US grains, illustrated by weekly U.S. wheat export sales on Thursday that came below market expectations.

CBOT corn slipped 1.9% to $5.17-3/4 a bushel, after also touching a one-month low, while CBOT soybeans lost 0.9% to $13.05-1/2 a bushel.

A highly anticipated US-China summit has so far not yielded further Chinese commitments to buy U.S. agricultural goods, with the main announcement a two-month extension to the countries' overall trade truce.

"Trump-Xi delivered little new for grains," CM Navigator analysts said, referring to the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The soybean market had been underpinned by a rally in soymeal , which hit a two-year peak on Thursday on tightening U.S. supply. CBOT soymeal were down 1.1% on Friday.