LONDON (AP) - World stocks rose and the dollar slumped yesterday after global finance chiefs vowed to avoid a currency war that could derail the global recovery. With no concrete guidelines to go by, however, investors are wary that this may only prove a temporary truce.

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 developed and emerging countries promised to avoid competitive devaluations - weakening a national currency to help exports and sustain economic recovery - but offered no binding targets for evening out trade imbalances.

Britain's FTSE 100 index was up 0.5 percent at 5,769.23 while Germany's DAX was 0.7 percent higher at 6,649.21. France's CAC-40 gained 0.2 percent to 3,876.78.

Asian indexes closed higher and Wall Street edged up on the open - the Dow industrials average was up 0.3 percent, at 11,171 while the Standard & Poor's 500 was 0.4 percent higher at 1,188.

Nations in Asia and other regions have been trying to stem strength in their currencies amid sustained weakness in the US dollar out of fear their exports will become less competitive. At the same time, China's currency, the yuan, has been effectively pegged to the dollar, provoking criticism it is being kept artificially low and giving the country's exporters an unfair advantage.

The dollar hit a new 15-year low against the Japanese yen - trading at 80.55 yen from 81.50 yen on Friday - and slumped against the euro, which rose to $1.4026 from $1.3931.

The focus is now on the Fed's expected monetary stimulus, which will effectively create more dollars in the financial system, diluting the value of the US currency.

"The agreement the finance ministers reached is being interpreted by the market as a go-ahead to the US to further devalue the dollar, that the developing countries won't partake in a competitive currency devaluation," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Pervin & Gertz in Singapore.

"It's a signal to the market that some more weakening of the US dollar will probably be tolerated by everybody else."

The surge in the yen hurt Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index, which bucked gains across Asia by closing down 0.3 percent at 9,401.16.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.3 percent to 4,710 amid news the Singapore Exchange is making a $8.3 billion takeover offer for ASX, the operator of the Australian stock market.

South Korea's Kospi added 1 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.9 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index vaulted 2.6 percent. Markets in Singapore, Taiwan and India also rose.

Benchmark crude for December delivery rose 99 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $83.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.