DOHA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Qatari Finance Minister Yousef Hussein Kamal said his country is committed to maintaining its riyal's peg to the dollar amid high inflationary pressure of the declining dollar on its economy, local newspaper the Peninsula said on Monday.

    Yousef, also acting Minister of Economy and Commerce, said "we are committed, we are committed," after presiding over a meeting of the finance ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Sunday.

    GCC finance ministers avoided discussions on de-pegging their currencies to a tumbling dollar, but decided to press ahead with plans to launch a common regional currency, according to Yousef.

    "We didn't raise the issue of de-pegging at all. It was not on our agenda," said the top finance official of Qatar, host of the 28th GCC annual summit due to kick off here later in the day.

    The six oil-rich GCC countries are under pressure to abandon their policy of pegging currencies to the greenback after the dollar's plunge this year.

    In May, Kuwait decided to peg its dinar to a basket of currencies after more than four years of linking it to the dollar in a bid to reduce inflation, casting doubt over the future of the council's planned monetary union in 2010.

    The 28th annual summit will gather all heads of state of the six GCC members, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabiaand the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

    Founded in 1981, the GCC is a regional political and economic alliance aimed at unifying Gulf Arab states in the face of internal and international challenges.