NUSA DUA - The Asian Development Bank on Sunday said the creation of a regional currency remained under discussion amid more pressing issues as a result of the global financial crisis.

"In our discussion we address the long and short-term issues. One of our long-standing issues on the table is establishing an Asian currency unit," Managing Director General Rajat Nag said on the sidelines of the ADB's annual governors' meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

Nag said a regional currency was not a short-term solution to the crisis and would not be the focus of the meeting, where strategies for overcoming the worst financial crisis in 70 years were taking centre stage.

"We're not focusing on this (single currency) issue this time... but that in the long term that is what we're doing," Nag said.

His statement followed comments from Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who earlier attributed Asia's financial crisis to its dependency on the US dollar fluctuations.

"Every trade made between any countries across Asia would require US dollar in the transaction, never on the direct basis," Indrawati said.