Fed's Lacker sees asset sales as key part of exit

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - A top Federal Reserve policymaker said on Wednesday he favors selling mortgage-backed securities as a "natural" first step in the central bank's exit strategy.

Some market analysts fear the housing market is still far too fragile to withstand the impact of the higher interest rates that would likely accompany such a move. But Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said he was not concerned.

"To my mind, a natural place to start is asset sales," he told reporters after a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina, playing down fears of market disruptions. "We have to move over time to channeling resources away from the housing market. It doesn't seem advisable to me to build a recovery based on housing."

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Kenneth Barry)