Unless Beijing swiftly follows up talk with action, however, the vow will not defuse a fight brewing in the U.S. Congress over whether to penalize China for what some lawmakers see as unfair trade practices.
China's central bank said it would gradually make the yuan's exchange rate more flexible, indicating it was ready to break a 23-month-old dollar peg that had become a growing source of friction with the United States.
Washington wants a stronger yuan to make its own exports more competitive with China's. Many economists say the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving China a trading advantage and swelling its reserves to more than $2 trillion.
"This is an important step but the test is how far and how fast they let the currency appreciate," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.
Some private analysts doubted China would act quickly.
"Just these words are not going to be enough to satisfy the U.S. Congress and Treasury," said Marc Chandler, head of global currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co in New York.
"I am skeptical. I am not convinced that these words mean what they seem to mean."
U.S. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who has led a congressional charge to get tougher on China, called the move "vague and limited" and typical of China's response to pressure.
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