British Prime Minister David Cameron flew into China saying he wanted to lay the ground for a multi-billion-dollar free trade deal between Beijing and the European Union, despite growing unease about his own country's membership of the bloc, Reuters said.

On a three-day visit with a delegation of around 100 business people, the largest British mission of its kind ever, Cameron said he wanted his country to play an important role in China's expansion as the world's second biggest economy is talking about opening up its markets.

"China's transformation is one of the defining facts of our lifetime," Cameron wrote in Caixin, a Chinese weekly news magazine, on the eve of the visit.

"There is a genuine choice for every country over how to respond. They can choose to see China's rise as a threat or an opportunity. Britain's answer is clear. We want to see China succeed."

According to Reuters, Cameron's push for an EU-China trade deal will irritate the European Commission, which is understood to be strongly opposed to such a move on the grounds that it risks flooding the bloc with cheap Chinese imports and comes as the bloc is embroiled in a dispute with Beijing over solar panel exports.

It is also likely to be seized upon by political opponents as he has put a question mark over Britain's continued membership of the 28-nation EU by promising Britons an in/out referendum on leaving the bloc if re-elected in 2015.

"I now want to set a new long-term goal of an ambitious and comprehensive EU-China Free Trade Agreement," Cameron wrote.

"And as I have on the EU-US deal, so I will put my full political weight behind such a deal which could be worth tens of billions of dollars every year."

Cameron is expected to raise the subject in a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday, December 2. His office said he was the first European leader to champion such a deal in this way.

He had already discussed the idea of an EU-China trade deal with other EU member states, it added. Such a deal would address services liberalization and better intellectual property rights protection.

Cameron told reporters on the plane to Beijing he was aware the idea was not universally popular among EU member states, but said it could be a chance to tackle Beijing on intellectual property rights and trading standards.

"It'll be the normal thing in the EU which will be a discussion where there will be some skeptics. There will be some enthusiasts and I think the enthusiasts have the wind in our sails."