SINGAPORE - There is little the United States can do about the dollar's sinking value except restore confidence in its economy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Friday.

"The value of the dollar in part is going to be dependent on confidence in dollar-held securities, so that depends on your view of the US recovery and the value of those assets," he said on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit.

"Given the role of the dollar, frankly, there's not a tremendous amount one can do other than try to run a good, sound policy and restore the US economy to growth," he said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings.

The dollar's prolonged decline and China's refusal to relax the rigid exchange rate governing its currency, known as the yuan or the renminbi, have prompted rare public criticism against both nations from other APEC members.

Zoellick, a former US trade representative and deputy secretary of state, noted that finance ministers from the 21-member APEC group agreed during their talks this week on the need for flexible exchange rates.

"One of the dangers that I was alluding to is if you do have the renminbi linked to the dollar and the dollar has been losing value, that actually puts the renminbi in a more competitive position than other currencies in the region," he said.

"So I think some additional flexibility as you've heard discussed in the past couple of days could be useful but the core issue really is this rebalancing."

The currency issue has flared ahead of this weekend's APEC summit, which will be joined by US President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao.

US officials say the yuan's exchange rate will be up for discussion when Obama travels on to China next week.

Other Asian nations are now adding their voices to longstanding US complaints over the yuan as they struggle to maintain the competitiveness of their crucial export sectors against China.