SHANGHAI, July 6 (Reuters) - China on Monday officially launched a pilot programme to allow companies to settle imports and exports in the yuan in selected areas in a major step towards internationalising the Chinese currency eventually.

The launch in Shanghai also echoed Beijing's announcement earlier this year to make the Chinese financial hub a global international centre by 2020 in what the government said would reflect the rising status of China's economy and its currency.

The government had said the programme would initially be confined to certain areas, including Hong Kong and Macau, outside mainland China, and to Shanghai and China's key export province of Guangdong in the south.

The yuan settlement scheme will be trialled between the Association of South East Asian Nations and Yunnan and Guangxi regions in southern China before it is launched elsewhere. (Reporting by Lu Jianxin and Jacqueline Wong)