* Minister Pangestu says concluding Doha round a priority
* Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in focus as APEC meets
* Sees need to manage capital inflows
By Yoko Nishikawa
YOKOHAMA, Japan, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Indonesia's priority is to wrap up the long-running Doha round of global trade talks rather than joining a U.S.-led Asia-Pacific free trade initiative, the country's trade minister said on Saturday.
Mari Pangestu also said in an interview that differing speeds of currency appreciation in emerging Asian economies was a source of anxiety for Indonesia and raised questions over how to manage large capital inflows into Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
"For Indonesia, we think the best thing to do is to conclude the Doha round," she said, when asked if Indonesia would consider joining the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would in principle eliminate all tariffs within the zone it covers.
World Trade Organisation (WTO) members are trying to reach a deal to open up global commerce, but the current Doha round of talks have been stalled since July 2008.
Pangestu was attending the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, where leaders are trying to accelerate trade integration in the region.
APEC leaders are expected to pledge to take steps to create a vast Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) in the region, home to 44 percent of the world's trade and 53 percent of global economic output.
One of the "building blocks" for the FTAAP is the TPP that would link nine nations.
"At the moment, the deadlock or problems that we face in negotiating the WTO is the same as what you are going to face in FTAAP negotiations or TPP negotiations, and maybe even more because TPP is what's called a very comprehensive or high-standard trade agreement," Pangestu said.
"So if you cannot solve it in the WTO, it will be difficult to solve it in FTAAP or TPP. So for a smallish country like Indonesia with limited resources for negotiations, let's prioritise the multilateral negotiations first."
Pangestu also said she was worried about differing rates of currency appreciation in Asia's emerging markets and volatility of capital inflows into Indonesia.
Capital inflows into emerging market funds hit a massive $46.4 billion in the year to the fourth week of October compared with $9.4 billion for all of 2009, according to Global fund tracker EPFR.
"It is definitely causing a lot of anxiety and raising issues of how we manage capital inflows, what is the appropriate exchange rate for countries like Indonesia or any of other countries," she said, adding that she would like to see more long-term flows come in.
"Having gone through the Asian crisis in 1997-1998, Indonesia, Korea and Thailand are sensitive to these issues. We have to manage it because it has side effects on our exporters and our competitiveness."
(Editing by Ed Davies)