FOREX-Dollar index hits 15-mth low after Fed minutes

* Dollar hits 15-mth low vs currency basket

* FOMC minutes: Dollar decline has been "orderly"

* Dollar/yen hits 10-mth low, nears 13-year trough

(Adds comment, updates throughout)

By Naomi Tajitsu

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The dollar hit a 15-month low against a currency basket on Wednesday after Federal Reserve minutes showed policymakers saw the U.S. currency's recent decline as "orderly".

Traders dumped the U.S. currency across the board, pushing it down to a 10-month low against the yen, as the minutes also reinforced the view U.S. interest rates will stay essentially at zero until around mid-2010.

The U.S. currency's latest bout of weakness came as European shares .FTEU3 rose 0.7 percent and gold XAU= hit a record high of $1,179.80, underlining the trend for investors to diversify away from the dollar and into other assets.

Minutes from the U.S. central bank's November meeting showed board members considered the dollar's fall against major currencies since March "orderly", further persuading investors the U.S. currency will stay weak. [ID:nN24313828]

"When the Fed says the dollar's decline has been 'orderly' ...they're implicitly saying this is not something they will do anything about," said Johan Javeus, chief currency strategist at SEB in Stockholm.

The dollar has been sold for much of 2009, falling 8 percent on a trade-weighted basis and 30 percent versus the high-yielding Australian dollar since January on the view U.S. rates will stay low as other countries start to raise theirs.

By 1144 GMT, the dollar index .DXY, which measures its performance against a basket of six currencies, had fallen 0.8 percent to 74.438.

The euro EUR= hit a 15-month high of $1.5096 and was last up 0.8 percent at $1.5076. The Swiss franc CHF= briefly hit parity against the U.S. dollar.

Traders said dollar losses accelerated after Russia's central bank said it would use part of its reserves to purchase Canadian dollars, underlining moves by central banks to diversify out of the U.S. currency.

The dollar fell 1 percent to 87.64 yen JPY=, according to Reuters data, off a low of 87.57. It approached a 13-year low of 87.10 hit in January.