Japan's central bank chief insisted yesterday the tumbling yen was not responsible for the weakness in Asian units, and suggested the region link up with a basket of currencies.

"I do not think the reason behind the Asian currency falls is the yen's weakness," said Mr Masaru Hayami, governor of the Bank of Japan.

"It is wrong to simply say the yen's fall against the US dollar is one of the reasons for the decline in the Asian currencies," he said.

The stumbling yen, which was trading at 145.13-16 yen to the dollar yesterday, has rocked stock markets across the world and investors have pushed Asian currencies down as the yen fell.

However markets were generally more stable yesterday, although remaining very nervous.

"We just have to leave trading to the market, but excessive rate movement happens often and the market can correct that excessive movement by itself afterward," Mr Hayami said.

Hayami did not make clear any other reasons for the region's currency falls although he said countries in Asia should link themselves to a basket of currencies including the dollar, the yen and possibly the euro.

"When the dollar strengthened, currencies of Asia rose as well and their export competitiveness was eroded.

"That seemed a common case in the region," he said adding the crisis "would have never happened had they linked their currencies to both" the dollar and the yen.