Pacific trading partners consider currency forum-Australia's Robb

LAHAINA, Hawaii, July 28 (Reuters) - Pacific Rim trading partners are considering setting up a top-level forum to consider ways to avoid currency manipulation in parallel to an ambitious 12-nation trade deal, Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said on Tuesday.

Robb said the U.S. proposal would not seek to include language on avoiding currency manipulation within the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal - an idea opposed by countries including Japan and Australia - but would set up a separate forum to discuss currency issues.

"It's a forum of finance ministers who will agree to consider on a regular basis aspects of currency manipulation," he said in an interview on the sidelines of TPP ministers meetings in Hawaii, which are aimed at finalizing the regional trade pact.

"They are not looking to put it in as part of the TPP treaty, they are looking  to make use of the relationship of the 12 countries to consider currency issues on an ongoing basis, so we hopefully don't see the re-emergence of currency manipulation."

The move would stop short of calls by U.S. automakers and some U.S. lawmakers to include sanctions against currency manipulation in the trade deal.

U.S. officials have warned such rules could undermine the independence of monetary policy, which central banks use to boost the economy but can also work to weaken exchange rates.

Weaker exchange rates make a country's exports cheaper and give exporters a competitive advantage.

(Reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Kim Coghill)