1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar retreats ahead of Fed meeting

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Monday ahead of the Federal Reserve policy meeting as investors were worried that the central bank could be cautious in raising interest rates.

Fed officials will gather Tuesday in a monetary policy meeting at which it is expected to give more clues about the timing of Fed 's first rate hike in almost a decade.

The greenback pared most of its gains from the last session on worries that the central bank may not remove the pledge of keeping "patient" about raising rates in Wednesday's statement. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.72 percent at 99.610 in late trading.

On the U.S. economic front, industrial production increased 0.1 percent in February, after decreasing 0.3 percent in January, the Federal Reserve reported Monday. In February, manufacturing output moved down 0.2 percent, its third consecutive monthly decline.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0583 dollars from 1.0475 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.4834 dollars from 1.4726 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7642 dollars from 0.7620 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 121.40 Japanese yen, higher than 121.33 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged up to 1.0078 Swiss francs from 1.0067 Swiss francs, and it declined to 1.2778 Canadian dollars from 1.2802 Canadian dollars. Endite