The country's trade surplus fell to 16.88 billion dollars in September from 20.03 billion dollars in August, and was the lowest surplus in five months, customs authorities said.

The figures come as China set the yuan's central parity rate -- the middle of the currency's allowed trading band -- at 6.6693 to the dollar, its strongest since a June promise of limited currency reform.

But the data is unlikely to calm angry US and European lawmakers, who are demanding that China let the yuan appreciate faster against the dollar.

"I think the pressure is still going to be there," Brian Jackson, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist at Royal Bank of Canada, told AFP. "I think the fact that their exports are still very strong suggests that there's plenty of scope for them to do more on the currency."

Some critics claim the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage by making their shipments artificially cheap.

Beijing vowed in June to let the yuan trade more freely against the dollar. Since then, the currency has advanced around two percent against the greenback.

Recent currency interventions by nations ranging from Japan to Colombia have sparked fears of a global currency war and the Chinese trade data has done little to ease those concerns, analysts said.

"China's overall trade surplus may have declined slightly last month, but tensions are unlikely to do the same," said Mark Williams, a London-based economist at Capital Economics.

China's exports rose by 25.1 percent in September year-on-year to 144.99 billion dollars, compared with an increase of 34.4 percent in August, the data showed.

Imports rose 24.1 percent on-year in September to a record high of 128.11 billion dollars, but slower than the 35.2 percent growth recorded in August, the report said.

The slower growth was due to the high base effect last year rather than weakness in the global economy, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch analyst Lu Ting said in a research note.

Beijing-based Citigroup economist Ken Peng told AFP that despite the slowing export and import growth last month, the data remained very strong and would "not stop the calls for more appreciation" in the currency.

China has repeatedly rejected demands for a sharp rise in the yuan, with Premier Wen Jiabao telling European lawmakers last week that such a move would destroy Chinese firms and fuel social instability by triggering job losses.

"The world will by no means benefit from a crisis in the Chinese economy," Wen added, pledging to "gradually allow more flexibility in the yuan exchange rate while maintaining its basic stability".

While China has said it wants to reduce its heavy reliance on exports to drive the economy, the export sector remains a massive employer in the country of 1.3 billion people.

China's top central banker Zhou Xiaochuan said at an International Monetary Fund meeting last week that the yuan would move gradually towards an "equilibrium" level but rejected any "shock therapy".

The country's foreign exchange regulator said Tuesday that reforming the yuan exchange rate did not equate to currency appreciation and that market players should get used to "two-way fluctuation in the yuan exchange rate".

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