US is reported weighing the benefits of taking China's censorship of Google Inc. to the World Trade Organization as an bias hindrance to trade, a move that could further trigger diplomatic concerns.

"There is a little bit of a Cold War going on here", said Michael DeGolyer, a Professor of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. "This is a way of putting pressure on China in a way that is going to be popular with many countries".

The search engine giant revealed a Senate subcommittee Tuesday that Google is committed to not censoring its search results in China, irrespective of how current negotiations with Chinese officials conclude.

The Obama Administration sided with Mountain View, California-based Google. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Jan. 20 that China is among countries "walling themselves off" from progress by restricting Web access.

However, Google currently does not possess a preplanned schedule for when it will end censoring search results in the country. At this point, a major focus is Google's China employees.

Google shares registered a climb of $8.37, or 1.6 percent, to $541.06 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading and have slipped 13 percent this year.