Asia-Pacific finance ministers rejected a call by US Treasury Secretary John Snow to let markets decide the value of currencies, saying only "in some cases" would ending government controls promote economic growth.

　　"There is no single regime that suits all economies at all times," 21 ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum said in a joint statement at the end of the two-day meeting yesterday in Phuket, Thailand. "We noted a view expressed at the meeting that more flexible exchange-rate management in some cases is beneficial."

　　Participants said that economic stability must be considered before exchange rate controls can be eased and argued that trade flows have relatively little effect in determining currency rates.

　　The meeting had been split by a US-led push for China and other fixed-rate economies to loosen their regimes and let their currencies rise in value. Many Asian countries, however, wanted a more measured approach.

　　Ministers of South Korea and the Philippines - countries that depend on China's economic growth to fuel demand for their own exports - said they favored leaving it to each nation to decide its currency policy. Mexican Finance Minister Jose Francisco Gil Diaz also sided with China.

　　"You don't know what will happen if they liberalize suddenly," he said. "They are being cautious. I would do the same."

　　Australian treasurer Peter Costello told reporters on Thursday that "countries should work toward strengthening their financial systems, and the long-term result of that will be fully floating currencies."

　　"But it's a question of sequencing and getting it right. Otherwise instead of a flexible exchange rate giving you a shock absorber, sometimes it can give you a shock if you're not fully prepared for it," he added.

　　In beijing, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said that scrapping the yuan's decade-old peg to the dollar in favor of a link to a basket of currencies "can be discussed." He didn't give a timeframe.

　　Apec finance ministers have met once a year since 1994 in a group that represents 47 percent of world trade and 2.5 billion people.

　　China and Malaysia currencies are essen-tially pegged to the US dollar, while mone-tary authorities in most other Asian coun-tries have been buying dollars heavily this year to slow their currencies' appreciation.

　　A weaker currency makes a country's exports cheaper and therefore more competitive overseas, and US manufacturers have complained that a flood of exports from Asia is putting them and their employees at a disadvantage.

　　As snow arrived at the Thai resort island after stops in Tokyo and Beijing, Japan's central bank sold its currency, according to traders and analysts who deal with the bank. From January through July, Japan sold a record 9.03 trillion yen (US.5 billion) to keep the currency from rising, Japanese Finance Ministry figures show.

　　South korean, Singapore and Thailand also have sold their currencies to stem their gains against the dollar, according to traders.

　　The wording of this year's statement suggests Snow had failed to win enough support for his currency proposal, said Kazuhiro Takeuchi, senior manager of the trading group at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd in Hong Kong, a unit of Japan's biggest bank.

　　"After a lot of speculation in the currency market that Japan sold the yen on Thursday, it is probably hard for them to include lines strongly against the intervention," he said.