By Nick Olivari

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro and dollar bothrallied against the yen and Swiss franc while commodity bloccurrencies rose Friday as strong import data from Chinaraised optimism about global economic growth and promptedhigher risk tolerance.

China's imports leaped 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 investorssold safe-haven currencies.

"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."

U.S. stock indexes were higher on the day,illustrating risk appetite. For the moment, currency marketsshrugged off worries about European banks and news of apossible 9 billion euro capital raising by Deutsche Bank ahead of a meeting to finalize European capital rules at the weekend

The dollar rose 0.7 percent on the day to 1.0221 Swissfrancs . The euro last traded up 1 percent at 1.3011francs, earlier hitting the day's high of 1.3074 francs as the Swiss currency came under selling pressure.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 up 0.3 percent against the dollar at$1.2730 near the day's high of $1.2747 as U.S. bondyields touched their highest in about a month and investorsadjusted portfolios. .

But strategists remain skeptical about any euro gains,given the euro zone periphery's debt worries and renewedconcern this week about the region's banking sector.

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

YEN WATCH

The dollar traded in a tight range between 83.76 yen and84.38 yen with the U.S. unit up 0.6 percent at 84.26yen. Stop loss orders 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 higher-yielding currencies and the euro amid the continued rhetoric by Japanese authorities.

The euro was last up 0.8 percent at 107.31 yen.

The dollar hit a 15-year low of 83.34 yen on electronictrading platform EBS this week, intensifyingspeculation Japan might step in to curb gains if it acceleratestoward 80 yen. The Reuters recorded low is 83.32 yen .

Investor attention is turning to a ruling party leadershiprace between Kan and powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa.

Most commodity bloc currencies rose versus the dollar afterthe China import report. August Chinese industrial output datadue Saturday is slated to show 13 percent growth.

The Australian dollar was up 0.3 percent against theU.S. dollar and the New Zealand dollar rose 0.4 percent.The U.S. dollar fell 0.2 percent against the Canadian dollar and 0.3 percent against the South African rand .

The Canadian dollar also got a boost on news Canada'seconomy added 35,800 jobs in August, slightly more thanexpected, although the pace of employment creation was slowerthan in the first half of the year. . (Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in London; Editing by DanGrebler)