BRIC May Discuss Moving From Dollar: Kremlin

A basket of currencies would be better than just the dollar or euro as world reserve currency, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev said in an interview with CNBC.

"The whole world is dependent on the health of the dollar," Medvedev said. "...My idea is that at the moment the world needs a larger number of reserve currencies and it not because the dollar is bad or the euro is not sufficient. But the situation is that the current environment requires that we need to have more reserve currencies where people could be investing, where banks could be investing." (See his discussion with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo in the video)

Medvedev's comments were echoed in comments by his spokeswoman, who told reporters that the leaders of the world's biggest emerging markets may discuss the idea of a supranational currency this month when they meet for a summit in Russia.

"I do not exclude that the Russian president's idea about the creation of a supranational currency and the rouble as a (world) reserve currency will be discussed," Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, told reporters.

When asked if the summit would include a discussion of ways to reduce dependence on the dollar, she said: "If one of the (BRIC) participants raises this question then I do not exclude it" (a discussion).

Russia has proposed the creation of a new world reserve currency that would be issued by international financial institutions to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar.

The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, known by the BRIC acronym, are due to meet in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on June 16 for the first summit since the international downturn struck their economies, which had driven global growth.

The BRIC states are trying to strengthen their clout as the producers of 15 percent of global output by building up the grouping into a powerful world player.

The term BRIC was coined in 2003 by Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs to describe how the four rising economies are likely to rival and overtake many of the West's leading economies over the next half century.

A Brazilian official told Reuters last week that the summit would discuss the dominance of the U.S. dollar as well as ways to reshape the world trade system and nuclear disarmament.

"The agenda of the BRIC summit is still being finalized but naturally questions connected with the world economic crisis and proposals from all the BRIC countries about ways to move out of the crisis will be discussed in very great detail," said Timakova.

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