Gulf banks will review currency deadline

Doha: Gulf Arab central bankers will discuss whether to revive the deadline for a single currency and try to remove obstacles facing monetary union at a meeting this weekend, Qatar's Central Bank governor said on Saturday.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and three other states in the world's biggest oil exporting region have been trying to negotiate a single currency by 2010, a deadline policymakers across the Gulf have said would be difficult, if not impossible, to meet.

"Our main objective will be to remove obstacles to monetary union," Shaikh Abdullah Bin Saud Al Thani told Reuters in Doha, without being more specific on what those obstacles were.

Central bankers would discuss harmonising payment systems and regulations at their bi-annual meeting today and could possibly recommend a change in the timeline to Gulf Arab rulers when they meet at their annual summit in December, Shaikh Abdullah said.

All Gulf states, except Kuwait, peg their currencies to the dollar, which tumbled to record lows against the euro and a basket of major currencies last month.