MILWAUKEE, Oct 4: President George W. Bush vowed on Friday to press other countries to adopt currency policies that offer a “level playing field” for American companies, taking up a cause that is popular with manufacturers but viewed with skepticism by some economists.

The manufacturing sector is concerned about the playing field being level, Bush said in a speech on the economy to the Midwest Airlines Center here. “This administration will work to level that playing field.

In what Wall Street views as a move away from the former Clinton administration’s well-honed mantra of advocating a strong dollar as being in the United States’ best interests, the Bush administration has been gently prodding Japan and China to relax policies that have kept the dollar strong against their own currencies.

In China’s case, the administration wants Beijing to loosen up its currency regime, in which the Chinese yuan is pegged to the dollar.

US officials argue that the fixed peg renders Chinese exports cheaper, making it hard for American companies to compete.

Japan’s currency floats freely but its central bank intervenes in the foreign exchange market. The Bush administration has indicated a preference for less intervention by Japanese authorities to weaken the yen against the dollar.

We’ve got to have free trade policy that includes fair trade, Bush said. Fair trade means currency policy is fair.

Last month, finance officials from the Group of Seven rich nations issued a statement calling for more flexibility in exchange rates, saying that such flexibility could help promote “adjustments” in financial markets.

US manufacturing groups have been pressing the administration to put push major trading partners into changing their currency policies to help the ailing US factory sector. China has been a particular concern for manufacturers lately.

Some economists, however, argue that pursuing policies that will lead to a weaker dollar could backfire for the administration if the US currency falls too fast and leads investors to dump US stocks and bonds.

By focusing on the currencies, though, the administration is attempting to use a new policy lever at a time when many analysts believe its other means of influencing the economy are tapped out.

Bush has pushed through three tax cuts, which he says are spurring growth but which Democrats contend have plunged the nation into a problem with the budget deficit — the shortfall is expected to top half a trillion dollars.

Polls have shown Bush’s public approval ratings have been slipping, with an increasing number of Americans expressing doubts on his policies on the economy and Iraq.

The administration appeared pleased with the latest figures on the US job market, issued on Friday.

The number of workers on US payrolls outside the farm sector grew by 57,000 last month, the first time since January that jobs were created, the Labour Department said.

Still, the manufacturing sector alone lost 29,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1 per cent.

Things are getting better, Bush said in his speech. But there’s still work to do. We’ve got manufacturers in a lot of parts of our country that are lagging the rest of...economic vitality.

Democrats on Friday further pressed the issue of the economy.

The Administration continues to claim that a recovery in the job market is just around the corner, but ordinary Americans have yet to see it, said congressman John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat. What Americans see instead is an economy that has lost 3.2 million jobs in the private sector.—Reuters