Washington - The United States hopes it will avoid filing lawsuit to the World Trade Organization against China to fix trade problems that have strained relations, the top US trade official said on Friday.

"Quite frankly, I'd rather not litigate in the World Trade Organization," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in an interview taped for C-Span television's "The Newsmakers," which will air on Sunday.

"I would rather have China fix the problem whether it's a market access problem or a problem related to intellectual property or so on," she said.

Schwab will travel to China in late August after attending the annual economics ministers meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, next week.

The United States, the European Union and Canada already have taken one step toward a WTO case against China for tariff policies they said discriminate against foreign auto parts.

Washington also has been considering another case aimed at getting Beijing to toughen its enforcement of laws against pirating and counterfeiting goods.

American companies said they lose billions of dollars in China each year because of the fake goods, some of which end up back in the United States.

Schwab said she planned to discuss both issues with her Chinese counterpart, as well as US concern that China honor commitments to open its financial services market.

The United States also wants China to become much more engaged in nearly 5-year-old world trade talks, which were suspended last month after countries failed to agree on how much to cut agricultural and manufacturing tariffs.