The head of a World Health Organization (WHO) team working with Chinese colleagues to finish a long-awaited report into the origins of the coronavirus acknowledged its authors could face "pressures" but insisted the final product will have a unanimous green light from all of the team's science-minded members.

Peter Ben Embarek, an expert on food safety and diseases that jump from animals to humans, said in interviews on Wednesday and Thursday that the team hopes the report – now totaling some 280 pages and complete with graphs, dates and annexes – will be ready for release next week.

The report is a first-phase study that is expected to be followed by a more in-depth look as part of guidelines set by Chinese officials and the WHO team.

"What we can guarantee is that everyone will be on board" and "unanimous" in their backing of the report once the text is completed, said Ben Embarek, who led an international team of experts that visited China in January and February. The "fine-tuning of the text" has centered on scientific issues, while some Chinese-English translation issues were "taking a lot of time."

He said the report was being written by all of the experts and is part of a "long and complex" process.

China's Global Times newspaper on Wednesday published an interview with Liang Wannian, the head of the Chinese side of the team, who spoke of alleged political pressures that amounted to "huge disrespect to the work of our scientists."

Liang was quoted as saying some politicians and international media had "insisted on politicizing the scientific issue of tracing the source of COVID-19, regardless of scientific facts, for their own personal gain, arbitrarily misinterpreting the scientific findings and reports of our joint team."

He emphasized the spirit of cooperation among the scientists and said both sides had cooperated openly and fully throughout the month-long investigation, and that "results of this joint study in China are the consensus of Chinese and foreign experts."

Liang echoed the comments from Ben Embarek about the extended time to publish the report, saying the process required to present a complete and scientifically rigorous report "takes some time."