Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says he believes China will sympathise with his country's "internal fiscal problems" as he seeks to renegotiate, or possibly cancel, more than $US20 billion ($27 billion) in Chinese-funded projects.

Mr Mahathir said after meeting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing he did not believe in confrontation with any country and stressed the benefits Malaysia stood to gain from increased exposure to Chinese trade, technology and entrepreneurship.

"We hope also to get China to understand the problems being faced by Malaysia today," Mr Mahathir told a joint news conference with Mr Li.

"I believe that China will look sympathetically towards the problems that we have to resolve and perhaps helping us to resolve some of our internal fiscal problems."

Mr Mahathir did not mention the projects in question but he vowed repeatedly before his China visit to discuss what he called "unfair" Chinese infrastructure deals authorised by former prime minister Najib Razak.

Mr Najib courted Chinese investment and was a cheerleader for President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative in South-East Asia during his decade-long rule, but Mr Mahathir has questioned the value of the deals and the risk that they would leave Malaysia "indebted" to China.

Speaking with Mr Li, the Malaysian Prime Minister also warned against "a new version of colonialism".

Mr Mahathir, who turned 93 last month, offered only a qualified endorsement when Mr Li, addressing him directly, asked whether he believed they had consensus on upholding free trade.

"I agree with you that free trade should be the way to go but of course free trade should also be fair trade," Mr Mahathir said.

The centrepiece of China's Belt and Road infrastructure push in Malaysia is the ambitious $27 billion East Coast Rail Link project, work on which has been suspended pending discussions over pricing.

Mr Mahathir has also halted work on two projects worth more than $3.1 billion awarded to the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau that have been linked to corruption at state fund 1MDB.

Mr Li said China hoped a further expansion in trade ties with Malaysia would result in greater balance in two-way trade and China was ready to increase "to a fairly large extent" imports of palm oil and other agricultural produce to meet the needs of Chinese consumers.

China is Malaysia's third-largest export market after India and the European Union.

He said consensus reached during talks and a raft of memorandum of understandings signed during Mr Mahathir's visit, including on a bilateral currency swap, palm oil, rubber and durian imports, sent a message that the two countries would "remain friendly to each other in the long term".

No mention of financier wanted for 1MDB role

Mr Mahathir made no mention of Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian financier wanted for his role in the multi-billion-dollar scandal at 1MDB.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Malaysia believed Mr Low was being harboured in China and that a request to extradite him would be high on Mr Mahathir's agenda during his five-day trip.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he was not familiar with Mr Low's case.

"But on principle, China is willing to, on the basis of mutual consultations, start normal legal cooperation with other countries," he told a regular news briefing.

Reuters