South Korea's central bank has asked the U.S. Federal Reserve to extend a $30 billion swap agreement for a safety net, as the existing credit line is due to expire on Feb. 1, 2010, a local newspaper reported.

In its early Tuesday edition, The Korea Economic Daily quoted a government official as saying the Bank of Korea had expressed hopes for an extension of the swap deal when the Fed asked its South Korea's counterpart for an opinion on the agreement.

The Bank of Korea and the government think we can deal with uncertainty in global financial markets as foreign exchange reserves have risen sharply. But we think we'd better have a safety device, the unnamed official told the newspaper.

Officials from the government and the central bank were not available for comment.

In June, the Fed and the Bank of Korea reached an agreement to extend the currency swap until Feb. 1, 2010, as the credit line expired at the end of October.

South Korea