US Treasuries remain an important part of the investment strategy for China's foreign exchange reserves, though Beijing is buying less long-term debt as interest rates fall, an influential economist said.

Li Yang, a policy adviser, also said that China hopes for greater stability among major exchange rates and reiterated the value of the yuan would remain basically stable.

Concerns that huge new debt issuance by the US government will erode the value of China's dollar holdings have led to calls by some in Beijing policy circles for it to diversify its foreign exchange reserves away from Treasuries, of which China is currently the biggest holder.

Worries that China could lose its appetite for Treasuries have in turn helped depress US government debt prices.

However, Li said the global financial crisis would only reinforce the importance of seeking secure investments for China's forex reserves, which stood at nearly $2 trillion at the end of 2008.

"We are in the middle of a crisis right now, and the priority for foreign exchange reserves is to minimize losses," Li, head of the Institute of Finance and Banking with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview.

"I believe that after this crisis, the percentage of US (assets) will rise," he said, emphasizing that he was expressing his personal views.

Li, a former member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, said that with the financial crisis persisting, it was unrealistic for China to carry out any significant diversification of its foreign exchange reserves at this time.

"The task is to find a safe place," he said.

Still, Li said China had been adjusting the proportion of short and long-term debt in its holdings of Treasuries.

"We have been doing this in the past months," he said. "As interest rates are moving lower, we should buy less long-term products and more short-term ones."