KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz today declared that she intends to see through her term as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor, amid continuing speculation that she is under pressure to step down.

She said she expects to remain in charge of the country's central bank until her current term expires in April 2016.

"I will certainly remain in office till my term ends. That's five years and it ends next year," Zeti told a news conference here.

The BNM chief laughed off rumours that she had suffered a heart attack and insisted that she is in the pink of health save for a flu bug she picked up on her return from the US two days earlier.

She said her doctor even told her that her heart is "very strong" and that her arteries are "very clean".

"When the rumours came out, I was giving a luncheon address on Tuesday. The rumours came out on Monday of the heart attack," Zeti said.

Asked if she would continue to serve in her post if offered an extension, Zeti said she had already said before that she plans to write a book once she retires.

"I would have completed 16 years in office by then (April next year), and 34 years with BNM.

"I've done most of what I set out to do, and BNM is a solid institution," she said.

Rumours have been circulating over the past few weeks that Zeti had resigned as BNM governor for health reasons.

The claims surfaced at a time when BNM was made part of a multi-agency special taskforce headed by the-then Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, which was probing claims of US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) in allegedly misappropriated funds involving Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and state-owned firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has since come out to say that the funds were "donations" from the Middle East made to Najib’s personal account.