US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that China could face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic.

"It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn't," Trump told reporters at a White House briefing. "And now the whole world is suffering because of it."

Trump was asked whether China should suffer consequences over the pandemic which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December and has left more than 157,000 people dead around the world.

"If they were knowingly responsible, certainly," he said. "If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake.

"But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences," Trump said.

"Was it a mistake that got out of control or was it done deliberately?" he asked. "That's a big difference between those two.

"In either event they should have let us go in," he said. "We asked to go in early. And they didn't want us in. I think they knew it was something bad and they were embarrassed."

"They said they're doing an investigation," the president continued. "So let's see what happens with their investigation. But we're doing investigations also."

The Trump administration has said it doesn't rule out that the novel coronavirus was spread -- accidentally -- from a laboratory researching bats in Wuhan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian -- who previously alleged that the US military may have brought the virus into China -- has rejected US media reports on the subject and said there is "no scientific basis."

Trump also cast doubt on official Chinese figures showing the country has suffered just 0.33 deaths per 100,000 people.

"The number's impossible," he said. "It's an impossible number to hit."

The United States, according to a chart displayed at the briefing, has had 11.24 deaths per 100,000 people while France has had 27.92 and Spain 42.81.

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As US pulls back, China builds influence at UN
United Nations, United States (AFP) April 17, 2020
As President Donald Trump announces a halt in World Health Organization funding, accusing it of kowtowing to China over the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing is building on a well-established strategy of leveraging its global standing wherever the US lets go of the wheel. For years, Chinese nationals have been taking up positions at the head of and lower down UN agencies as the Asian powerhouse ploughs considerable resources into building on its international financial and military relationships. Ch ... read more