UPDATE 1-Canada calls for Chinese exchange rate flexibility

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TRUJILLO, Peru, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Finance officials from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will discuss the need for more foreign exchange flexibility in some Asian economies, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday during a meeting in Peru.

Flaherty specifically called on China to relax its foreign exchange controls. Finance officials from the 21-member APEC group, which includes China, are meeting in northern Peru on Wednesday and Thursday.

"The Chinese government takes the view that they've allowed some flexibility and that ought to be sufficient, and others think as we do, that greater flexibility would be helpful," Flaherty told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.

Canada has long called for Beijing to speed up the rate at which it has allows the yuan to appreciate. It says the tightly controlled foreign exchange rate gives it an unfair advantage and hurts exports in other countries, causing deficits.

"The inflexibility of some of the Asian currencies is a persistent issue. This has been going on for years and remains a concern that I'm sure will be discussed because it's part of the major economic issues that we have in terms of a functioning economy globally," Flaherty said.

Flaherty pointed to the Canadian dollar's wild fluctuations during the global financial market turmoil. The Canadian currency has fallen against the U.S. dollar, helping exporters offset the pain from the U.S. slowdown.

"I come from a country with a market currency, and it's not always easy to live with a market currency because of fluctuations, but it's in the best interest of a functioning economy to have flexibility in currencies," he said. (Reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)