But Snow, attending a meeting of Asian finance ministers in the Thai resort of Phuket after a visit to China where he pushed Beijing to float the yuan, quickly ran into resistance from Asian counterparts who said abrupt change in the yuan was undersirable.

China and the United States have agreed that the yuan should eventually float freely, but Snow's visit to Beijing yielded little for him to take home to US manufacturers complaining that a flood of cheap Chinese goods now is costing jobs.

"I will cite good growth in significant parts of Asia, as well as in APEC countries, and use that to launch the idea that now is the time to embrace the idea of relaxing capital controls and (adopting) market-based exchange systems," Snow told reporters enroute to the meeting of finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Finance ministers from South Korea and Australia agreed that floating exchange rates were best, but warned against abrupt changes in markets that are not fully developed -- saying this could have unexpected effects on neighbouring economies.

Despite arguments over the value of the yuan and a similar row over Japanese intervention to cap the value of the yen, parts of Asia may be coming around to the idea that stronger currencies are not necessarily against their economic interests.