BAGHDAD. Oct 9 : Iraq s central bank has begun to buy European currencies, following Baghdad’s decision to stop using the dollar, the INA agency reported, says AFI’

The central bank said in a statement yesterday that it was "disposed to buying European currencies against their equivalent in American dollars."

The statement said that "the currencies which will be bought are the French franc, the German mark, the Austrian schilling. the pound sterling, tin Dutch florin and the Italian lira."

Baghdad, accuses Washington of maintaining the crip pling sanctions regime im posed on Iraq for its 1990 inx.i sion of Kuwait.

Last month Iraqi Finan< •• Minister Hekmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi announced the decision to ditch the dollar in foreign trade transactions.

The dollar is the currency of an enemy state, and must be abandoned for other currencies, including the euro," Az-zawi said

Azzawl urged other countries to snub the dollar, saying the United States was employing an "imperialist" economic policy in league with “Zionists" to weaken the economies of other countries in the world.

Iraq will work, in the framework of the Arab League, to "push through a similar Arab measure because it is in the interest of Arabs to renounce the currency of a country hostile to them." he vowed.