China says it will sue an American oil company as soon as next week over a 2-month-old oil spill off China's northeast coast.

The official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday that the government's maritime regulator plans to file the suit as soon as it has chosen a legal team from among 49 applying law firms. It said the State Oceanic Administration hopes to act before the end of this month.

Georg Stoker, the president of ConocoPhillips China Incorporated, apologized earlier Wednesday for the spill, which occurred in early to mid-June but was not made public until mid-July.

Chinese officials say the spill has fouled 840 square kilometers of water in Bohai Bay, east of Beijing, and caused more than $23 million in damage, mainly to the fishing industry.

ConocoPhillips has been operating in the bay, which contains China's largest offshore oil field, in partnership with CNOOC Limited, China's largest offshore oil company.

Storaker said Wednesday that the company has permanently sealed the original source of the oil leak and is on track to complete a cleanup of the area by the end of the month. However he acknowledged that small amounts of oil are still escaping into the bay.

The initial disclosure of the oil leak in July sparked an angry response from Chinese media, which criticized the government for failing to disclose it weeks earlier.

The China Daily newspaper reported Wednesday that China's top court plans to toughen its regulations for handling disputes over marine pollution.