Gulf Arab oil exporters will stay with the dollar as the currency for trading crude, a source in the United Arab Emirates central bank said on Tuesday.

They are going to stay with the dollar, the source told Reuters, asking not to be named. For so long oil pricing is in dollars and it would be difficult for producing countries to change.

Earlier on Tuesday, Britain's The Independent newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in the trading of oil.

OPEC member UAE is the world's third-largest exporter of oil.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho, writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Inal Ersan)

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