* Dollar's long-term weakness seen unchanged
* BOE issues November minutes at 0930 GMT
* U.S. CPI, housing data for October due at 1330 GMT
By Kaori Kaneko
TOKYO, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The dollar drifted sideways after short-covering waned in Asia on Wednesday and as investors waited for U.S. inflation data, as well as for minutes from the Bank of England's November meeting for clues on its decision to expand its asset buying programme.
The Australian dollar hit the day's high so far after gold prices inched up to another record peak, but the Aussie remained under pressure from profit-taking.
Dealers said the greenback's rebound the previous day was partly supported after euro zone economic policymakers followed U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke in commenting on the merits of a strong dollar.
But the trend of a gradual dollar decline for a longer-term has not changed, dealers said.
"The dollar's rebound can be explained by the adjustment of short positions," said Tomohiro Nishida, treasury department manager at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Company.
"It's going to be hard for the dollar to gain further, since it looks like the U.S. will keep its low interest rate policy for a while," he said.
Some dealers said hedge funds repatriating the dollar ahead of the year-end also underpinned the currency, although this was not strong enough to alter the greenback's downward trend.
The dollar index edged down 0.1 percent to 75.278, after striking a 15-month low of 74.679 on Monday.
The euro was little changed at $1.4873 after rising as high as $1.5000 on trading platform EBS on Tuesday.
The dollar was trading around 89.20 yen after touching 88.73 yen on EBS the previous day, its lowest in one-month.
U.S. President Barack Obama continued courting China in talks with Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday, opening an opportunity to press him on economic and currency strains, although few expect any near-term changes in Beijing's foreign exchange policy.
Obama on Tuesday made plain in a summit with President Hu Jintao that one of his topmost concerns was China's currency policy.
Sterling was at $1.6804, off a 3-month high of $1.6879 hit on Monday, ahead of the Bank of England publishing the minutes of its Nov. 4-5 Monetary Policy Committee meeting at 0930 GMT.
Investors hope to find out whether the central bank really might consider more economic stimulus, or whether its quantitative easing programme is now drawing to a close.
Other data due later on Wednesday includes U.S. consumer price index and housing market data for October due at 1330 GMT.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expect a 0.2 percent rise, a repeat of the September increase. Excluding volatile food and energy items, the CPI is expected to rise 0.1 percent compared with a 0.2 percent increase in September.
"After a weaker-than-expected producer price index yesterday, today's CPI data will also unlikely be at a level where the U.S. needs to worry about inflation," said Tsutomu Soma, senior manager of foreign securities at Okasan Securities.
"So, the CPI data is expected to reinforce a view that the U.S. will stick to a low interest rate policy."
The Australian dollar found some support from comments by RBA watcher Terry McCrann that a 25-basis point December rate rise was "now likely' without citing any sources.
The Aussie was trading around $0.9284 after falling as low as $0.9237 on Tuesday when the Reserve Bank of Australia's last policy meeting showed that the outlook for further tightening was uncertain. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Joseph Radford)