Asia finmins agree upgrade to $80 bln FX swaps fund

MADRID, May 4 (Reuters) - East Asian finance ministers agreed on Sunday to upgrade an $80 billion currency swap scheme to fight regional financial crises, according to a draft statement released by officials.

The deal -- more than a year in the making -- will replace the existing arrangement of mainly bilateral currency swaps, called the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) and transform it into a more powerful self-managed reserve pooling mechanism governed by a legally binding single contract.

"We agreed that the Chiang Mai Initiative multilateral funds will be scaled at $80 billion," the statement said.

The broad terms were agreed at meeting of finance ministers from the so-called ASEAN+3 group -- the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea.

The talks, taking place on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Madrid, will finalise terms to pool foreign exchange reserves for use in emergencies in any of the signatory economies.

Japan, China and South Korea will provide 80 percent of the total, ASEAN countries the balance, the statement said.