(Adds currency buying continues, quotes)
By Nerijus Adomaitis
VILNIUS, March 9 (Reuters) - Top officials in recession-hit Lithuania sought to reassure the public on Monday their money was safe after people rushed to buy euros, dollars and other foreign currency due to rumours of a devaluation.
The dash to sell the litas began at the weekend after the latest devaluation rumour surfaced, spooking Lithuanians who remain nervous about their money after their savings were wiped out after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"I don't remember such panic selling since the Russian crisis in 1998," Stasys Kropas, the head of the Lithuanian commercial banks' association, told Reuters after the weekend selling.
Such rumours have reappeared in Lithuania, as well as in Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia, after their booming economies collapsed into recession, with newspapers in Lithuania also pointing to comments by some politicians on devaluation.
"We ran out of euros at about 5 p.m. (1500 GMT). You should try tomorrow," said the clerk at a bank near the railway station in the centre of the city.
"We are seeing more people buying euros than usual. We still have dollars and British pounds left, but not much," she added.
The head of the central bank dismissed any likelihood of a devaluation of the litas, which is pegged to the euro in the pre-euro Exchange Rate Mechanism.
"We have made a commitment to keep the litas rate unchanged until the eventual adoption of euro, and we will stick to it," Central Bank Governor Reinoldijus Sarkinas told state radio.
Sarkinas said devaluation talk should be dropped.
"The less everyone talks about it, the better," he said, also telling journalists the currency exchange turnover at the weekend was two to three times more than usual.
But at the large shopping centre Akropolis, just outside the centre of capital city Vilnius, people continued to buy foreign currency and branches of several banks ran out of euros.
"I think euros are a more stable currency than litas. These rumors have not affected me personally, I keep changing litas into euros every time I get my salary," said Rasa, 25, who declined to give her family name.
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The wave of selling, reported by local media at the weekend and again on Monday, came after a leading parliamentarian last week said the litas currency was overvalued and that it could be devalued once Lithuania eventually joins the euro zone.
The worries have come after Lithuania slid into recession in the fourth quarter of 2008 and after neighbouring Latvia needed aid from the International Monetary Fund, reflecting a collapse of the economies of the EU's once-booming Baltic states.
Like Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania keeps the exchange of its litas currency fixed to the euro. Lithuania's central bank had official reserve assets of 14.7 billion litas, or 4.3 billion euros, at the end of February, a drop of 1.9 percent on January.
The countries say the pegs have provided economic stability and are best for their kind of small, open economies.
The IMF allowed Latvia to maintain its peg when it contributed to a 7.5 billion euro aid package last year.
Politicians fear a devaluation would hurt the bank sector, dominated by Nordic banking groups, as the many people who have borrowed in foreign currency would default.
Lithuania has said it does not exclude turning to the IMF.
In Latvia, the IMF in early talks raised the possibility of a devaluation, but met strong resistance from the central bank and government as well as the European Commission. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Toby Chopra)