Feb 20 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures were mostly unchanged on Wednesday, as investors looked forward to the weekly exports sales report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and kept a close watch on U.S.-China trade talks for signs of a truce.

* The most active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S., the May

contract , rose 0.02 cent, or 0.03 percent, to 72.21 cents

per lb. as of 02:07 p.m ET (1907 GMT).

* The contract traded within a range of 72.00 to 72.67 cents per lb.

* "People are in wait-and-see mode, the market is awaiting on the numbers from the export sales report," said Beau Stephenson, senior vice president at Omnicotton Inc.

* "People are also awaiting on trade talks and we need some firmer news to give the market any particular price direction," Stephenson said.

* The USDA's weekly export sales report is due on Friday.

* U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is scheduled to testify next week at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on U.S.-China trade issues, a spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee said on Wednesday.

* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that trade talks with China were going well and suggested he was open to extending the deadline to complete negotiations.

* Total futures market volume fell by 24,666 to 28,722 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 7,230 to 230,413 contracts in the previous session.

* Certificated cotton stocks <CERT-COT-STX> deliverable as of Feb. 19 totaled 129,104 480-lb bales, unchanged from 129,104 in the previous session.

(Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)