A draft communique from the Group of 20 wealthy and emerging countries welcomes China's move to make its currency more flexible and its efforts to boost domestic demand, a G20 official said on Saturday.

We welcome the actions taken, China's efforts to boost domestic demand and to further reform the renminbi exchange rate regime and enhance exchange rate flexibility, the official said, quoting directly from the draft communique.

After weeks of growing pressure from Washington and others for China to allow its currency to rise, Beijing announced a week ago it would end a de facto peg of the yuan to the U.S. dollar that had been in place for nearly two years.

G20 sources said the group was initially divided over the language to include in the communique.

Some countries wanted to praise China's move, but China opposed the idea of any mention of its currency, they said.

A second source, a G20 official involved in summit preparations, said that during negotiations over the communique on Friday, delegates congratulated China for its move on the yuan, but some countries stressed the importance of Beijing going further toward a more flexible currency.

The United States wants China to allow the yuan to rise more rapidly to help shrink Washington's trade deficit. U.S. lawmakers accuse China of keeping its exports artificially cheap and stealing U.S. jobs.

The yuan ended the week 0.5 percent stronger against the U.S. dollar after the People's Bank of China's move.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Writing by Louise Egan, Editing by Peter Cooney)

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