TOKYO, Jan 9 The dollar slid further from six-week highs against the euro on Tuesday in a

TOKYO, Jan 9 (Reuters) The dollar slid further from six-week highs against the euro on Tuesday in a backlash against last week's rally on strong U.S. payrolls data, which investors saw as exaggerated.

But few market players expected the dollar to keep sliding since the buoyant numbers for December made it less likely that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates later this year.

''What the dollar faces now is a backlash against last week's big rally,'' said Masafumi Yamamoto, currency strategist at Nikko Citigroup.

Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said on Monday the U.S. economy was poised for moderate growth and lower inflation, but that there was no guarantee core inflation would continue to ease.

Looking for more clues about the Fed's future policy path, the market will scrutinise comments from other top Fed officials later this week, traders said.

Chicago Fed President Michael Moskow will speak on the U.S.

economic outlook on Wednesday. New York Fed President Timothy Geithner, Fed Board Governor Susan Schmidt Bies and Boston Fed President Cathy Minehan are also due to speak later this week.

In early Tokyo trade, the euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.3040 from $1.3025 in late U.S. trade on Wednesday, when the single currency touched six-week lows near $1.2970 before recovering.

The euro also firmed 0.2 percent to 154.95 yen from 154.75 yen.

The dollar barely budged at 118.80 yen Investors were hesitant about taking big bets on the dollar/yen rate, wary that the Bank of Japan might raise the overnight call rate to 0.5 percent from currently 0.25 percent at next week's policy meeting.

Reuters DKS VP0720