TEHRAN -- Iran is calculating its revenues in euros not dollars, including income from oil sales, and is making changes to reflect this in its currency reserves abroad, the government spokesman said on Monday.
Iranian press reports have said Iran has, since at least 2003, been shifting reserves out of dollars to other currencies or assets, encouraged by pressure from the United States which has been seeking to isolate Tehran over its nuclear programme.
It was not immediately clear if the latest comments indicated a new drive to shift reserves out of dollars.
Central bank officials do not release figures for the total reserves or the breakdown of currencies or assets, but recent media reports suggested dollars may now only make up about 30 percent Iran's holdings.
"Until now the budget and the foreign currency revenues have been calculated based on dollars, and the reliance was on dollars. This way of calculating is being changed," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference.
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"We are calculating and receiving oil revenues based on euros and what we calculate in the budget will be the rial equivalent of euros not dollars," he said.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it was not clear what Iran was intending to do but stressed that the commission does not encourage countries outside of the European Union to use euros.
Iranian oil officials have previously been quoted as saying Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, was still pricing its oil in dollars even if it was receiving payment in euros or other currencies.
Oil and central bank officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
"There will be no reliance on dollars," Elham said.
"This change is already being made in the currency reserves abroad," he added without elaborating.
A government economic council has told Iranian organisations to open letters of credit in euros rather than dollars in the future, Elham said.
Bankers say most international banks have already stopped dollar transactions with the Islamic Republic because of pressure from Washington. Most funds are now transferred in euros or other currencies.
Iran is under pressure from Washington, which has clamped down on financial transactions with Tehran to punish it for alleged support for terrorism and nuclear bomb ambitions.
Tehran denies the charges.
Economy and Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari said in November Iran was not worried by such restrictions and was becoming less dependent on the dollar for business transactions.
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