MANAMA, May 16 (Reuters) - Gulf Arab oil producers need a strong single currency, and are watching the euro zone's troubles, but their goal is still a long way off, Bahrain's finance minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa said.
Central bankers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain launched a forerunner for a joint central bank in March but did not give a target date for setting up the single currency.
"Currency union gives us control of our monetary policy, which is de facto run by the Fed. It is still a long-term goal and the concept is still in our sights, but we are watching as the euro goes through a crisis," Sheikh Ahmed said.
"What we need in the Gulf is a currency with sound fundamentals," he told a conference late on Saturday.
The Gulf countries, which peg their currencies to the dollar except for basket-linked Kuwait, last year abandoned an initial 2010 deadline for issuing common notes and coins, saying the joint monetary council would draw a new timeline.
In December, Gulf rulers endorsed a plan for union in the world's top oil exporting region, designed to emulate the euro zone, despite the absence of the United Arab Emirates -- the second-biggest Arab economy after Saudi Arabia -- and Oman.
Analysts mostly expect the Gulf single currency to be launched in 2015 at the earliest because progress had been held back by a lack of political will and fears of dominance by Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter.
The euro plunged to an 18-month low against the dollar on Friday as investors worried that tough spending cuts in Greece, Spain and Portugal may hit a fragile recovery in the 16-member euro zone.
(Reporting by Frederik Richter; Writing by Martin Dokoupil and Dinesh Nair; Editing by Paul Tait)
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