China will reduce its trade surplus by providing a more open marketplace for goods from developing countries, a top official said yesterday amid US complaints of unfair trade practices.

"We try to provide more market access and opportunities for least-developing countries and other developing countries," China's vice commerce minister Yi Xiao Zhun said when asked to comment on the trade surplus with the United States.

"We try to encourage our entrepreneurs to invest overseas," he told reporters.

Yi said China was confident the issue of its large trade surplus can be resolved.

"In the long run, we will more or less balance trade with the rest of the world," he said on the sidelines of a regional economic meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Washington is seriously concerned over China's enormous trade surplus with the United States, which hit a record US$201 billion last year according to US statistics.

Unfair trade practices

The surplus has fuelled accusations in Washington over unfair trade practices by China, including efforts to hold the yuan artificially low to boost exports.

The United States has also repeatedly criticized China for failing to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) and fully open its markets.

But Yi said it was impossible to secure a balance trade between two countries.

"You cannot seek the balance between two countries because that is the reality of international trade," he said.

However, he said China was committed to trade liberalisation.

"We believe in trade liberalisation and we believe in free trade," he said.