southeast Asian economies have emerged unscathed two weeks after China revalued the yuan, thanks largely to Beijing's calibrated move of allowing only a modest appreciation, analysts said.

Key regional currencies have strengthened against the Us dollar in line with the yuan, but initial fears of disruptions in the region's financial systems have not materialised.

Analysts said the impact was exactly as China had intended: please the United states by allowing the yuan to appreciate while also making sure the increase was not drastic enough to shake up the financial landscape.

"Given that the initial move was

fairly modest, we don't expect to see much significant impact in the near term," regional economist song seng Wun, of GK Goh brokerage, told AFP.

"At the end of the day, it is all about China needing to move (the yuan) but without really having to move too much.

"They want to ensure that the impact on domestic businesses and trading partners will be mininmal. They did not want to create sharp risks and destabilise economic activities."

Washington had put intense pressure on China to allow the yuan to seek its true level, saying it was grossly undervalued, making Chinese exports unfairly cheaper in the global market.

After months of speculation, China on July 21 freed the yuan from an 11-year-old peg to the Us dollar in favor of a trade-weighted basket of currencies.

Monetary authorities allowed the yuan to appreciate 2.1 percent to 8.11 to the dollar but kept details of the currency basket unclear to protect it against speculators.

The new managed float for the yuan can in theory allow for a 0.3 percent daily shift in either direction to what the market deems fair value.

While pressure for a stronger yuan has not disappeared, China has made it clear it will set the pace of any further revaluation, analysts said.

Henderson Global Investors said in a report the impact of China's move may be small for the near

term, but in the longer term it could erode support for the dollar because the Chinese goverment had been previously supporting the Us unit.

"With the floating peg exchange rate structure, there will be less support from the Chinese government in this scenario which leaves the dollar more vulnerable if it begins to slide," the report said.

Perhaps the most notable impact of China's move was Malaysia's decision -- also on the same day -- to unhinge the ringgit's peg to the dollar imposed by maverick Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at the height of the 1997 Asian financial crisis to battle speculators.

By late Friday, the ringgit was at 3.7464 to the dollar, up 1.4 percent since the peg was scrapped.