* Benchmark suffers biggest weekly drop since May
* Miners push Australian share-market lower
* Investors await China June trade data(Updates to close)
July 12 (Reuters) - Australian shares ended lower on Friday,with China-reliant mining stocks leading the fall on renewedworries that tensions between the United States and China coulddeepen.
The S&P/ASX 200 index slipped 0.3% or 19.6 points to6,696.5 at the close. The benchmark ended the week 0.8% lower,its biggest weekly drop since May.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that China wasnot living up to promises it made on buying agriculturalproducts from American farmers.
"Post G20, people were hoping that the trade war situationhad gone away. But it does feel like if Trump starts histweeting storms again, there is risk to the downside," DamianRooney, director of equity sales at Argonaut said.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at a G20meeting in late June on a trade ceasefire to open the door for aresumption of negotiations, but existing tariffs remain in placeand the two sides are believed to be still far apart on some keyissues.
Losses among Australian shares on Friday were concentratedin mining stocks, whose dependence on China makes themvulnerable to any weakness in the world's second largesteconomy.
BHP Group Ltd and its rival Rio Tinto Ltdslid 0.6% and 0.9% respectively.
Caution also prevailed ahead of release of China June tradedata, which is widely expected to show a fall in exports onweakening global demand and a sharp hike in U.S. tariffs.
Gold miners also declined sharply, having theirworst day since July 1.
St Barbara Ltd fell 2.8%, its sharpest drop in morethan one-month.
Oil Search Ltd climbed 3.5% to its highest sinceMay 23 and was the best performer on the benchmark.
On Friday, The Australian newspaper reported that Santoscould be considering acquiring its $7.6 billion rivalOil Search.
Santos said it does not comment on market speculation.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index gained 0.1%or 14.11 points to finish at 10,701.43. The index notched aweekly gain of 0.8%, extending a winning run to a fifthconsecutive week
Healthcare stocks led the gains, with Fisher & PaykelHealthcare Corporation Ltd firming 0.6%.(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by RichardBorsuk)