(Corrects to "involves making sure" from "ensures" and to "oriented" from "orientated" in paragraph 4)
WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the yuan was undervalued and while he had no timetable for China to move toward a more flexible exchange rate regime, he believed it was in their own best interests.
The following are excerpts of his yuan remarks during a press conference at a nuclear security summit he hosted in Washington:
"With respect to the currency issue, President Hu and I have had a number of frank conversations. As part of the G20 process, we all signed on to the notion that the rebalancing the world economy will be important for sustained economic growth and prevention of future crisis. And China, like the United States, agreed to that framework.
We believe that part of that rebalancing involves making sure that currencies are tracking roughly the market, and are not giving any one country an advantage over the other. I have been very clear of the fact that it is my estimation that the RMB (yuan) is undervalued, and that China's own decision in previous years to begin to move toward a more market-oriented approach is the right one. And I communicated that once again to President Hu.
I think China rightly sees the issue of currency a sovereign issue. I think they are resistant to international pressure when it comes to making decisions about their currency policy and monetary policy. But it is my belief that it is actually in China's interests ... to achieve this rebalancing because over time, China is going to have to shift away from an economy that is so reliant on exports, and is going to have start shifting toward an economy that is emphasizing domestic consumption and production, and is preventing bubbles from filling up within the economy. And all of that will be (precipitated) with a more market-orientated currency approach.
So I don't have a timetable, but it is my hope that China will make a decision that will ultimately be in their best interest."