* Yellen says Fed needs gradual rate hike despite soft prices
* Euro hampered by political worries in Europe
* U.S. tax plan biggest focus of day
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was underpinned by remarks from the Federal Reserve chief on the need to continue with rate hikes, while the euro licked the wounds from political uncertainty following the German election at weekend.
The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies .DXY =USD stood at 93.07 in early Wednesday trade after it reached a high of 93.286 the previous day, its highest level in almost a month.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that the Federal Reserve needs to continue gradual rate hikes despite broad uncertainty about the path of inflation. would be "would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2 percent," she said.
"Her comments suggest that latest (soft) inflation readings do not have a big bearing on the Fed's monetary policy. The Fed's focus is not to delay rate hikes too much to avoid a situation where it needs to raise rates hastily in the future," said Yukio Ishizuki, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
U.S. interest rate futures FFF8 price dipped further to price in about 70 percent chance of a rate hike by December compared to near 60 percent on Monday.
Against the yen the dollar stood at 112.27 yen JPY= , bouncing back from Tuesday's low of 111.50.
The euro EUR= slipped to a five-week low of $1.17575 on Tuesday and last stood at $1.1790. The euro weakened against other currencies, hitting a 10-week low of 0.87545 British pound EURGBP=D4 and two-week low of 1.14075 Swiss franc EURCHF=R .
The common currency had rallied more than 10 percent so far this year on as worries about the rise of anti-establishment political forces in Europe faded while expectations rose for tapering the European Central Bank's stimulus.
But the rise of a far-right party and the decline of traditional parties in Sunday's German election has left Chancellor Angela Merkel struggling to form a coalition government, denting investor sentiment.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar AUD=D4 slipped a tad to $0.7874 after having dropped to six-week low of $0.7860 on Tuesday.
The Aussie was undermined by a fall this month in the price of iron ore, its main export product.
The biggest focus for the market for Wednesday is the announcement of a tax plan by the U.S. administration and Republicans in Congress. plan has been developed over several months by six White House and congressional Republicans working behind closed doors. President Donald Trump told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday he wants bipartisan cooperation on tax reform.