China foreign minister says yuan at fair level

PARIS, Feb 4 - China will continue to examine its exchange rate, but considers the yuan to be fairly valued, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Thursday.

"We do think it is at a reasonable and fair level," he said at a press briefing during a visit to France.

China has held the yuan in a de facto peg to the dollar since the worsening of the global financial crisis in mid-2008, meaning its currency has weakened against those of other trade partners as the value of the dollar has slid over the past year.

The United States and other countries complain that China is keeping its currency artifically undervalued, unfairly helping exporters.

(Reporting by Sophie Taylor; Writing by Anna Willard; editing by Crispian Balmer)