No dollar announcement at GCC summit

Doha: The two day annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) concluded in Qatar on Tuesday, with no mention of the dollar or foreign exchange policy in the final communiqué.

The communique issued at the end of the summit said the six-nation GCC council remained committed to a 2010 target date for monetary union.

Gulf currencies weakened against the dollar following the summit as expectations of a near-term change in exchange rate policy waned. The Saudi riyal hit a two-week low.

Gulf policymakers will meet again to try to agree a common position on currencies, Bahrain's foreign minister said after the summit.

Asked whether there would be a change in currency regimes, Shaikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said: "We don't have a decision yet, we are going to meet over it."

Kuwait unilaterally abandoned the dollar peg in May in favour of a currency basket, and Oman announced it did not want to join monetary union in 2010. Several Gulf leaders have said they believe the target date is no longer credible.

"There is no change in the policy of the kingdom. And I think that applies to other Gulf states as well," Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al Assaf said.

Meanwhile, summit host, Emir of Qatar Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, lamented the lack of attention Gulf states pay to scientific research.

“The field of scientific research in particular remains in need of further attention and care. Real progress requires that we become a source of knowledge in its various aspects and being capable of developing it and not mere consumers of it,'' he said.

He also warned that the security situation in the region might spin "out of control" threatening the welfare of its people if the current tensions escalate.

"We are meeting today in climates of grave dangers threatening our homelands, the region and the world," he explained.

The first day was dominated by the presence for the first time of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was invited to the summit as a guest.

Oman is to host the next GCC summit in 2008.