WASHINGTON - US Treasury Secretary John Snow said Monday there is no reason for China delay a relaxation of its currency peg for the yuan.
"I'm convinced they will move," Snow told CNBC television.
"We've said that they have made such strides in improving their financial infrastructure, that they should move to it now and, are calling on them to do so ... Now is the time. We're anxious to see them move. It's time."
Washington and other global powers have long been pressing China to relax or end its currency peg to the dollar, saying it distorts global trade and has led to economic imbalances.
But China has argued it would set its own timetable for currency action and would not be pressured.
Earlier Monday in Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao repeated that China would not bow to outside pressures to revalue its currency and said politicizing the issue helps nobody.
"The renminbi's foreign exchange rate reform is the sovereign issue of China," said Wen in remarks carried by the official Xinhua news agency.
"We respect the order of the market economy but we do not succumb to outside pressure.
"Any pressure, speculation or politicizing of economic issues is not helpful to resolving the problem," he told a US trade delegation.
The yuan has been pegged at a rate of 8.28 to the dollar for about a decade.
05/16/2005 14:55 GMT