A weakening dollar has contributed to China's inflationary pressure by pushing up commodity prices around the world, said the country's central bank governor.

    Chinese policymakers need to learn from the lessons of US subprime woes, said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, also a member of the Chinese delegation attending the two-day session of the Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) in Maryland, US.

    The dialogue, headed by the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, ended yesterday.

    "Emerging economies are feeling the pinch (of rising prices)," he said at a news briefing in Annapolis, Maryland. "A weakening dollar may push up prices of commodities such as crude oil," which are major imports of China, he said.

    The price of crude oil has on one occasion topped $135 a barrel in recent trading sessions.

    Raw-material prices have also been hovering at high levels since last year, putting pressure on China's factory-gate prices, which would in turn pass onto the consumer inflation zone.

    In May, China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, rose 8.2 percent, the highest in more than three year