Switzerland is aiming to start talks to clinch a free trade agreement with China, Swiss Economics Minister Doris Leuthard said on Sunday.

Leuthard told local media that she would lead a large business delegation to China in June, and try to give support so that China opened negotiations with Switzerland, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported.

China is already in free trade talks with Iceland and will start talks with Norway, Leuthard said. Both countries are members of the four-state European Free Trade Association (Efta), along with Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

"Such deals are important for Switzerland, given that we are not a member of the European Union, the North-American free trade zone or the Asian community of nations," she said.

Switzerland has closed or is in talks over a score of trade deals, mostly through the Efta. It has a small number of deals outside Efta, most notably one with the European Union, and is also working on a bilateral deal with Japan.

China is one of four emerging countries -- the others are Brazil, Russia and India -- in the so-called BRIC group, SRI said.

In 2003 Goldmann Sachs, an investment bank, argued that the BRIC economies were rapidly developing and would account for half of the world's industrial production over the next 40 years.

The Swiss government decided to make this group a priority in 2007.

In February Leuthard, who had just returned from Brazil on her first economic mission, said she laid great importance on trade relations with new economies.