TOKYO, Japan -- The dollar rose further against the yen in Asia on Tuesday as financial worries mounted ahead of a key meeting on the economic crisis later this week.
The greenback was slightly weaker against the euro as traders took profits from its recent gains.
The dollar gained to 99.00 yen in Tokyo morning trade from 98.83 in New York late Monday. The euro climbed to $1.2640 from $1.2624 and to 125.10 yen from 124.49.
The dollar continued to benefit from uncertainty over the outlook for the global economy and financial system, said Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp. chief forex manager Hideaki Inoue.
"Investors are worried about the health of the financial system and will remain so until the United States clarifies its bad bank plan," he added, referring to the idea of a special bank to take on "toxic" assets.
Wall Street indexes are at their lowest level in 12 years while Japan's Nikkei has fallen to a 26-year nadir.
Although the financial crisis began in the United States, the dollar is still seen as a relatively safe investment compared with many other currencies because it is so widely used around the world.
Markets were waiting for a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and ChinaForeign Minister Yang Jiechi in Washington on Wednesday.
Geithner irked Beijing in January by suggesting that China was manipulating its currency, although the White House later backtracked on the remarks, saying it had not yet decided its policy on the yuan's value.
Investors were eager for any comments on fresh policy measures, particularly from China, which last week disappointed markets by staying silent on a widely anticipated economic stimulus package, dealers said.
Traders were looking ahead to a meeting this weekend in London of finance chiefs from the G20 industrial and developing nations, ahead of a leaders' summit next month on the economic crisis.
"The ministers are likely to discuss the progress that their governments have made in terms of policies. If they comment on fresh measures, that could reassure investors," said Inoue.
The British pound was slightly higher at $1.3830, a day after slipping below the $1.40-level to hit a more than one-month low as the British government moved to take a majority stake in the troubled Lloyds Banking Group.
