Amir Khan has vowed to "make a statement" against WBA light-welterweight challenger Dmitriy Salita as he looks ahead to unification title fights next year.

The Bolton fighter will put his world title on the line in Newcastle on Saturday for the first time since dethroning Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik in the summer.

While he refuses to take unbeaten mandatory challenger Salita lightly, he is also keeping one eye on adding further belts to his WBA strap.

Khan told Press Association Sport: "Now I've hit world-class level, I want to beat these people. Not just beat them, I want to knock them out and I want to put a stamp there to say, 'look guys, Amir Khan is here and you better be careful what you say because I'm the world champion and I'm going to back it up by fighting and making a statement'.

"I think, when I beat this guy - an American opponent - it's going to spring me up in America. More people will get to know me in America and we'll take it from there.

"(Trainer) Freddie (Roach) is a great help as well, being an American coach. We have a lot of offers and pulling power and we'll take it from there."

Khan added: "We'll go in and sort this guy (Salita) out. I can see in his eyes he's worried. We'll get this fight over with and get together to see where we go from here."

The 22-year-old Briton, an Olympic silver medalist in Athens in 2004, produced a punch-perfect performance to beat technically-sound Kotelnik but expects a tougher time of it against unbeaten New Yorker Salita.

"He'll bring out the best in me," said Khan. "I don't get many fighters who are as skilful as me but I think Salita is, he's very skilful.

"He's got a style which is probably going to make me look good. He's tough and doesn't give up, he's got a big heart in the ring."

Khan has spoken regularly of the need to step up in performance when making the first defence of the WBA title and believes his time spent in Los Angeles with trainer Roach since the Kotelnik fight will bear fruit at the Metro Radio Arena on Saturday.

"We're improving with every fight and getting better and better," he said. "We learned a lot from the Kotelnik fight about the weaknesses. We've worked on it, improved on it and we're going into this fight not making the mistakes we made against Kotelnik.

"Freddie is a great trainer and he's always working on what I should do and shouldn't do. Everything we do in the gym is done for a reason.

"I see myself as being a better fighter now than I was when I fought Kotelnik."

On Saturday's undercard, Kevin Mitchell meets Breidis Prescott - the Colombian who defeated Khan in September last year - in a WBO lightweight title eliminator.

Meanwhile, former amateur stars James DeGale, Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders look to close out 2009 by protecting their unbeaten professional records.