Mumbai: Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is conducting all its crude trading in euro and the yen, instead of the US dollar, agency reports quoted an Iranian official as saying.

Iran has been reducing its exposure to the dollar since the imposition of sanctions by the United States following a dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme. The UN Security Council has also imposed limited sanctions on Iran.

"All of Iran's oil trading is being done with euro and yen,"  Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, international affairs director of the National Iranian Oil Company, told Fars News Agency in an interview.

In December, the official said, 90 per cent of its oil export earnings were outside the dollar.

He said since last year Iran's oil transactions have been conducted in euro and the yen, and the dollar has been completely replaced by these two major currencies.

"Iran has reached agreements with all its crude oil buyers to pay in foreign currencies other than the US dollar," he said, adding, "In Europe, Iran's crude is being sold in euro, in Asia in euro and yen, and trading with yen has not only been in Japan."

Iranian officials, meanwhile, said oil remained priced in the US dollar although actual payments were made in other currencies.

Iran said it earned $70 billion from oil exports in the year to March on the back of soaring crude prices.

International crude prices recently hit almost $120 a barrel, while Iran media said Iranian crude had risen above $102 a barrel.

Iran is also pushing a $7-billion gas pipeline that would link Iran and India, despite strong US objections to the project.

The move comes as India and the United States are struggling to finalise a landmark nuclear energy deal.

The pipeline has to run through Pakistan. While the two countries are near a deal over transit costs, India still fears about the pipeline's security.