A former Chinese central bank adviser and influential economist on Thursday called on East Asian economies to form a stronger alliance to deal with issues such as the United States' weak fiscal position.

Yu Yongding, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank, told reporters that many countries in the region were concerned the U.S. fiscal position could dent prices of U.S. Treasury securities.

Why shouldn't we join forces and negotiate with the United States?, Yu said when asked about prospects for stronger cooperation between East Asian economies.

He said East Asian countries held a large amount of U.S. and European government treasury securities and that the very very bad fiscal position of the United States was worrying many about the safety of their U.S. government debt holdings.

Yu made the remarks on the sidelines of an international conference on East Asian cooperation hosted by a South Korean presidential committee.

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