SINGAPORE, Sept. 3 (MNI) - The U.S. dollar traded sideways within narrow ranges in Asia Friday, as players held their breath and waited for the release of tonight's U.S. non-farm payrolls data for August.

The FX market started the session with tinge of risk aversion this morning, although modest gains in some of the region's main stock markets managed to partly counter that, keeping major currency pairs confined near their opening levels.

SEOUL (MNI) - Europe stands a "very good" chance of getting out of its current debt crisis, although the process will take time, Riksbank Deputy-Governor Lars Nyberg told Market News International Friday.

"There's a very good chance to get out of the situation in Europe in a slow, but workable fashion," he said on the sidelines of the Financial Stability Board meeting here.

SHANGHAI (MNI) - Dollar-yuan non-deliverable forward contracts consolidated on Friday as the dollar index trod water at 82.40 ahead of U.S. jobs data out later in the day.

One-year contracts were trading at 6.7064/114 in mid-afternoon, implying a 1.3% rise in the Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar in one year's time.

The global foreign exchange market is taking the upcoming U.S. labor market data at 1230 GMT as the dominant clue for Friday.

BERLIN (MNI) - Deutsche Bank chief economist Thomas Mayer fears that the public debt crisis will flare up again in the Eurozone later this month, according to an article in German business daily Handelsblatt.

"We must prepare ourselves in Europe for troubles in the autumn," Mayer told the newspaper in an interview published Friday.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 3 (MNI) - The U.S. dollar traded sideways within narrow ranges in Asia Friday, as players waited for the release of tonight's U.S. non-farm payrolls data for August.

The FX market started the session with tinge of risk aversion this morning, although modest gains in some of the region's main stock markets managed to partly counter that, keeping major currency pairs confined near their opening levels.

BEIJING (MNI) - U.S. dollars account for around 65% of China's foreign exchange reserves, an official newspaper said Friday, with euros making up 26%, sterling 5% and yen another 3%.

The China Securities Journal report cited unidentified officials with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The exact composition of China's $2.45 trillion in foreign exchange reserves is a closely-guarded secret, though analysts have long estimated that around two-thirds are denominated in dollars.

By Vicki Schmelzer

NEW YORK, Sept 2 (MNI) - The August U.S. non-farm payrolls report, due out Friday morning, will set the tone for the post-Labor Day trading environment.

The market would be shocked if the U.S. non-farm report contained any good news about the U.S. unemployment situation, traders said.

Market positioning at the time, rather than the jobs data itself, will drive the trading action in most instruments, unless there is some unexpected result, they said.

BRUSSELS (MNI) - European Union policymakers reached political agreement late Thursday to set up four new financial regulatory authorities, successfully concluding months of negotiations.

The deal will lead to the creation of four new supervisory authorities, one of which will be part of the European Central Bank and will oversee macroprudential supervision. The new bodies are to be operational by the start of 2011.