US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that he and Commerce Secretary John Bryson will head to China shortly after the November 12-13 Asia-Pacific summit in Hawaii hosted by President Barack Obama.

During the annual dialogue with China known as the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, Kirk said he would press long-standing US charges that Beijing unfairly favors its state-owned enterprises.

"If we have full and unfettered access to China's market as their exporters do to ours, the economic impact to US businesses could be extraordinary," Kirk said at the US Chamber of Commerce.

"We will use and do use every opportunity we have to engage with China to ask China to do one simple thing -- live up to the commitments you made when we granted you permanent, normal trade relation status and invited you into the World Trade Organization," he said.

The US Congress in 2000 decided to give China normal trading status, ending often rancorous annual votes in which lawmakers scrutinized the growing Asian power's record on trade and human rights.

China regularly defends its record against US charges. While not mentioning the United States by name, Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this month warned that protectionism was rising and would slow down the troubled global economy.

The US Senate last week confirmed Bryson, a businessman, as commerce secretary to replace Gary Locke, who became ambassador to China.

"We have to speed up efforts to conclude a free trade agreement," Li told representatives of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and other business chiefs.

He said the two countries agreed on the need for such a deal and the foundations had been laid through years of research.

"A Sino-Korea FTA will help jointly cope with international economic risks and boost both countries' national welfare," Li said through a translator.

Li will oversee the world's second largest economy if he takes over as premier from Wen Jiabao in 2013, as expected.

China is South Korea's largest trading partner with annual two-way trade surging to $188.4 billion in 2010 from $6.3 billion when diplomatic relations were established in 1992, FKI chairman Huh Chang-Soo said at the meeting.

Huh called for more economic cooperation and personnel exchanges with China to expand trade and fuel growth.

The two countries have been holding preliminary talks to study the feasibility of a trade deal.

South Korea reportedly wants to delay opening its agricultural sector while China seeks to protect its petrochemical and auto sectors.

A state think tank, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, has estimated that a free trade deal with China would add 2.3 percentage points to South Korea's annual gross domestic product.

But such a deal is expected to meet strong resistance from South Korean farmers, fishermen and small businesses.

South Korea has signed free trade agreements with the European Union, the United States, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, among others.

The US deal is awaiting parliamentary approval in Seoul following Washington's ratification this month.