The baht moved in line with other Asian currencies except the Japanese yen against the weak US dollar, closing at 35.27-30, up against Monday's close of 35.46, traders said.

 BoT conceded that the baht went up "too quickly" and has continuously risen despite intervention from the central bank.

 "The baht has become so strong after the dollar and the yen have weakened," said the central bank's assistant governor Suchada Kirakul.

 "Capital inflows have continued moving into Asia, especially Thailand, on solid current account surplus," she told reporters, adding that the baht had risen 14 per cent since the beginning of this year.

 "We have stepped in to help manage the baht by monitoring the currency movements both in terms of trading volume and its value. Today the baht rose too quickly," she said.

 Exporters have asked the government to soften the baht, saying that the Thai currency's appreciation has outpaced regional rivals.

 But BoT played down the impact of the strong baht on exports.

 "The baht actually went up 9.3 per cent over the past two years which is the same levels of movement of other regional currencies," Suchada said.

 "Thai exports have remained competitive against shipments from our regional rivals," she said, adding that the baht is targeted to appreciate against the dollar by only 5.0 to 6.0 per cent this year as a whole.

 Analysts, however, expect the Thai baht to further appreciate despite the BoT intervention.

 "We target the baht to rise to 35.00 to the dollar pretty soon," a trader at a local bank told AFP.

Agence France Presse