* Fed says ready to buy long-term Treasuries
* But Fed does not commit to such buying for now
* Improving risk appetite weighs on yen
* NZ dollar falls after RBNZ slashes interest rates
By Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The dollar rose against the yen on Thursday due to a recovery in risk appetite and after the Federal Reserve refrained from committing to purchase long-dated Treasuries for now, calming inflationary concerns.
The Fed kept interest rates near zero on Wednesday after a two-day policy meeting and said it was prepared to buy long-term Treasury debt if that would help improve credit conditions.
Dollar investors fear the Fed's balance sheet will balloon further as it would need to essentially print more money to keep the economy afloat. The Fed's decision, coupled with a rally in major U.S. stock indexes and financial shares on optimism the Obama administration was making progress on a plan to relieve banks of toxic assets, gave the dollar a boost and weighed on the yen, market players said.
"Part of it may be that concerns about the potential for inflation, and dollar weakness stemming from that, may have eased," said Koji Fukaya, senior currency strategist at Deutsche Securities, referring to the dollar's rise.
The dollar rose 0.2 percent from late U.S. trading on Wednesday to 90.52 yen.
It hovered near a one-week high of 90.79 yen hit on trading platform EBS on Wednesday and was off a 13-½ year low of 87.10 yen hit last week.
The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.3151.
The yen was broadly lower as a rally in U.S. equities and Thursday's 2 percent rise in Japan's benchmark Nikkei share average pointed to a recovery in risk appetite.
The yen has been viewed as a safe-haven currency amid the global financial crisis, and it often fluctuates depending on perceived shifts in investors' tolerance for risk.
The euro rose 0.2 percent to 119.04 yen.
The New Zealand dollar fell after New Zealand's central bank slashed interest rates by 150 basis points to a record low of 3.5 percent on Thursday to boost an economy deep in recession, and left the door open for further, smaller cuts.
Against the U.S. dollar, the New Zealand dollar fell 0.4 percent to $0.5220. (Editing by Brent Kininmont)