President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Administration approved plans Monday to use euros for foreign transactions and transform the state's dollar-denominated assets held abroad into the single european currency.

"The government has ordered the central bank to replace the dollar with the euro to limit the problems of the executive organs in commercial transactions," Government Spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

"We will also employ this change for Iranian assets (in dollars) held abroad."

Elham implied that the move would apply to oil revenues.

"Foreign income sources and oil revenues will be calculated in euros and we will receive them in euros in order to put an end to our dependence on the dollar," Elham said.

Bankers in Iran have complained in recent weeks that it was becoming increasingly difficult to receive Iranian-held money denominated in dollars from European bank accounts.

They said that this was because of America's pressure on European banking giants not to allow dollar-denominated funds to be sent into, or out of, Iran.

Elham added that IRI's budget would in future be calculated in euros.

"Until now the budget has been calculated according to revenues in dollars, but this calculation will now change," he said. 
 
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