UPDATE 1-BIS-China, Brazil working on trade FX deal-cenbanks

(Adds Zhou confirmation)

BASEL, Switzerland, June 28 (Reuters) - China and Brazil are working on a currency arrangement to allow exporters and importers to settle deals in their local currencies, bypassing the U.S. dollar, the countries' central banks said on Sunday.

China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Brazil's Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles discussed the bilateral deal in a meeting at the Bank for International Settlements on Saturday.

"It is agreed in principle," a spokeswoman for the Brazilian central bank told Reuters. "They will start to study this."

No details were available on the size of the arrangement or the timeline for finalising details.

Zhou said a further step was for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss the arrangement, which he said would not necessarily involve a currency swap like those China has in place with other countries.

"What we are discussing is that Brazil's president Mr Lula and our president Mr Hu talk about the possibility and gradual development to use our local currency for some trade settlement and ... investment, that's the major thing," he told reporters.

"It's not necessarily to use a currency swap."

The People's Bank of China has arranged six bilateral currency swaps, totalling 650 billion yuan ($95.12 billion), since December with countries including Malaysia, Argentina and Hong Kong.