The Iranian president calls on a regional economic body to abandon the US dollar in order to reduce the effects of the financial crisis.

In a Tuesday speech to a meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the 10-member group of Asian nations could adopt a single currency instead of the US dollar to shield their financial systems from the negative impacts of the global economic crisis.

ECO was originally founded by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, but was later joined by the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as Azerbaijan and Afghanistan.

Member states also agreed during Tuesday's ministerial meeting to establish a body with the aim of improving the financial system of the organization and finding a breakthrough solution to their economic setbacks.

The Iranian president said the underlying principles of capitalism were to blame for the ongoing global financial meltdown.

Financial cooperation, banking, fighting corruption and money laundering as well as expanding cooperation in the private sector were on the Tuesday meeting's agenda.

AO/AKM/HGH