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By Nick Olivari

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro and dollar ralliedagainst the yen while commodity bloc currencies rose Friday,as strong import data from China raised optimism about globaleconomic growth and prompted higher risk tolerance.

China's imports leapt in August, boding well for astrengthening of domestic demand in an economy that has becomea major driver of global growth. .

News that Dubai World had reached a deal torestructure liabilities helped ease recently renewed fearsabout Dubai's debt woes and also boosted risk demand..

The yen was down against the dollar but remained near the15-year high touched earlier this week, keeping prospects foryen intervention alive.

The Swiss franc stumbled as investors sold safe-havencurrencies.

"There has been strong risk assumption on the China dataovernight," said John Doyle, senior currency strategist atTempus Consulting in Washington. "The lack of U.S. economicdata will also allow the dollar to trade in line withequities."

For the moment, currency markets shrugged off worries aboutEuropean banks and news of a possible 9 billion euro capitalraising by Deutsche Bank , ahead of ameeting to finalise European capital rules at the weekend.

The dollar rose nearly 1.2 percent on the day to 1.0271francs . The euro also rallied against the franc, hittingthe day's high of 1.3074 francs as the Swiss currencycame under selling pressure due to the rise in risk appetite.Resistance on euro/Swiss franc is seen around 1.3085.

Traders cited Swiss banks selling the safe-haven francagainst the euro, dollar and other currencies.

The euro was last little changed against the dollar at$1.2694 coming off the day's high of $1.2747 as U.S.bond yields rose and investors adjusted portfolios..

Strategists have remained sceptical about any euro gains,given the euro zone periphery's debt worries and renewedconcern this week about the region's banking sector.

"It is a risk-on environment which is helping the euro, butclearly structural problems remain given widening spreads andwell known problems about its banking sector," said SimonDerrick, head of currency research at Bank of New York Mellon.

Derrick's bank's data showed demand was not recovering forassets in euro zone markets like Greece, Italy and Portugal.

European Central Bank executive board member Lorenzo BiniSmaghi warned on Friday of a looming debt crunch in severaldeveloped countries that could cripple economies if leftunchecked.

YEN WATCH

Against the yen, the dollar traded in a tight range between84.33 and 83.76 with the U.S. currency last up 0.5percent at 84.26 yen. Stop loss orders on dollar/yen were reported at 83.70 and 83.75.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan reiterated that Japaneseauthorities would take decisive steps on the yen if needed.Joint intervention in currency markets, however, would bedifficult, he said.

The shift away from safe-haven currencies also kept the yenunder pressure against the higher-yielding currencies and theeuro amid continued rhetoric by Japaneseauthorities.

The euro was last up 0.7 percent at 107.16 yen.

The dollar hit a 15-year low of 83.34 yen on electronictrading plaform EBS this week, intensifyingspeculation that Japan might step in to curb yen gains if themove accelerated towards 80 yen. The Reuters recorded low is83.32 yen .

Investor attention is now turning to a ruling partyleadership race on September 14 in which Kan faces a challengefrom powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa.

Most commodity bloc currencies were up against the dollarafter the China import report.

The Australian dollar was up 0.2 percent against theU.S. dollar and the New Zealand dollar rose 0.6 percent.The U.S. dollar fell 0.2 percent against the Canadian dollar and 0.2 percent against the South African rand . (Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in London)