January 22, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 21, 1426

TEHRAN, Jan 21: Iran on Saturday denied it has shifted funds out of Europe due to fears of economic sanctions over its nuclear programme, after a swirl of contradictory reports on whether such transfers had taken place.

A deputy central bank chief categorically denied that Iran was moving foreign currency out of Europe to Southeast Asia, in comments that appeared to flatly contradict previous reported remarks by the bank’s president.

“At the moment, Iran does not have any schedule to transfer its foreign exchange accounts to the named countries,” Mohammad-Jafar Mojarad told the state news agency IRNA.

The public relations department of the central bank also moved to say that any statements that claimed funds had been moved out of Europe were false.—AFP