Ahmadinejad questions efficiency of capitalism

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned against the spread of a capitalist system by the United States and its allies.

"The US administration and certain capitalist countries seek to pin the blame for the current global economic crisis on others and call for collective cooperation to settle the problem," Ahmadinejad told reporters in the Kazakh capital city Astana on Monday.

"The economic crisis gripping the world is a crisis caused by a capitalist system," he added.

He called on regional countries to work to create a common currency for their trade exchanges as proposed by Iran during the 10th summit of the Economic cooperation Organization (ECO) in Tehran in March, 2009.

President Ahmadinejad had earlier recommended that the 10 ECO member states formulate a plan to use a common currency.

According to Ahmadinejad, such a currency could lessen the impact of the growing global financial crisis.

In his Monday address to reporters, the Iranian president explained, however, that such plans would require adequate preparation.

Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are the members of the ECO.

With their combined population of 400 million people, ECO member nations may significantly impact the world economy if they adopt a single currency.