APEC members express concern on unstable currencies

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Some members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, which includes the United States and China, expressed concerns over unstable currency movements at a summit, host Singapore said on Sunday.

"Currencies were part of the discussions amongst the leaders and some of the leaders expressed their concerns over the possibility of currency movements which would become unstable, and also the potential problems which could arise if governments had to intervene continually in order to manange their currencies," said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong at a post-summit press conference.

"But we did not reach a, we did not have an in-depth discussion."

Chinese President Hu Jintao has been under pressure to let the yuan currency appreciate, but in a speech at an APEC business summit on Friday he ignored the issue and focused on trade and investment protectionism.

The final APEC leaders declaration cut an earlier draft reference to "market-oriented exchange rates". An APEC delegation official said Washington and Beijing could not agree on the wording.

(Reporting Neil Chatterjee; Editing by Dean Yates)