The Obama administration maintains that Beijing is keeping its currency artificially low against the dollar to make its exports more competitive, and is showing increasing signs of frustration over the long-running row.

The president charged that the yuan "is valued lower than market conditions would say it should be," during a town hall style-meeting on CNBC television, calling on the Chinese to do more to promote "fair" trading conditions.

"What we've said to them is, you need to let your currency rise... you're getting wealthier, you're exporting a lot, there should be an adjustment there based on market conditions.

"They have said 'yes' in theory, but in fact they have not done everything that needs to be done," said Obama, three days before he is due to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in New York.

"We are going to continue to insist that on this issue, and on all trade issues between us and China, that it is a two-way street," Obama said.

His comments were the latest sharp US signal to China as currency and trade issues become, as always, an explosive issue in the American election season.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner complained last week that it was "past time for China to move" on the yuan and lift trade barriers.

Despite June's "important" pledge by Beijing, Geithner said the Chinese currency's value was "essentially" unchanged in the past two years because of "very substantial" intervention by the authorities.

On Sunday, Li Daokui, an adviser to China's central bank, was quoted as saying by a financial news website that unlike Japan in the 1980s, Beijing would not cave in to foreign pressure to let its exchange rate appreciate.

"China as it stands now is not Japan in 1985, it is not a country that completely relies on external demand," he said at the China CEO Forum taking place in Beijing, in a speech transcribed on finance.qq.com.

"We will not appreciate the yuan solely because of external pressure."

Li appeared to refer to the 1985 Plaza Accord, where Japan agreed to let its yen currency appreciate against the dollar.

Since June, the yuan has appreciated about 1.6 percent against the greenback and gained about 0.7 percent this week ahead of Geithner's testimony to Congress on Thursday.

Li said this kind of pressure would not abate in the coming decade.

"Protectionism against China and India will continue to increase and pressure on the RMB currency will also continue," he said, according to the transcript.

Obama also said Washington was determined to defend its turf on trade, after asking the World Trade Organization last week to investigate allegedly unfair Chinese treatment of US steel and electronic payment providers.

"We are going to enforce our trade laws much more effectively than we have in the past, not because I'm anti-trade. I'm pro-trade. I just want to make sure that trade is good for American businesses and American workers."

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