The euro fell against the yen and dollar in Asia Monday as weaker regional shares prompted investors to sell the risk-sensitive currency to take profits on its recent rise, analysts said.

The euro was changing hands at 1.3740 dollars in Tokyo afternoon trade, down from 1.3761 dollars in New York late Friday, and fell to 124.47 yen from 124.76 yen. The dollar edged up 90.60 yen from 90.52 yen in New York.

"The weaker stocks have led naturally to some profit taking," said Mitsuru Sahara, senior manager of the foreign exchange sales department at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Investors may be keen to lock in profits after the euro's rise Friday amid speculation that Europe is mustering support for ailing eurozone member Greece, he told Dow Jones Newswires.

With a monthly meeting of European Union finance ministers later in the day unlikely to yield any specific details of financial aid for Greece, the euro may fall further this week, dealers said.

Share prices in were also mostly lower due to lingering worries over fresh credit-tightening measures by Beijing.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei-225 stock closed flat with profit taking offsetting buying on the back of expectations for further monetary easing by the Bank of Japan.

Dollar-yen rates were trapped in a narrow range as investors wait for meetings of the US and Japanese central banks.

"It's hard to push yen buying ahead of the Bank of Japan meeting while the dollar lacks strength to stay above 91 yen," said Mizuho Corporate Bank market economist Daisuke Karakama.

The Bank of Japan is to meet for two days from Tuesday and policymakers are widely expected to discuss further monetary easing to fight deflation.

In the United States the Federal Reserve's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet on Tuesday.

The Fed's decision last month to hike the interest rate it charges banks for emergency loans stunned the markets, but many investors believe there will be no policy change at the upcoming meeting, Karakama said.

"There is not much point buying the dollar aggressively either," he said.

Dealers said the dollar could weaken against the yen this week if the FOMC Tuesday does not change its intent to keep interest rates low for an "extended period".

Against regional currencies the dollar rose to 1,134.50 South Korean won from 1,128.20 on Friday, to 1.3971 Singapore dollars from 1.3961, to 9,165 Indonesian rupiah from 9,159 and to 31.79 Taiwan dollars from 31.75.

The greenback also rose to 45.75 Philippine pesos from 45.67 but fell to 32.57 Thai baht from 32.66.