TEHRAN (REUTERS) -- Iran, facing political pressure from Washington, has been shifting its reserves out of dollars since at least 2003 and now holds 70 percent in other currencies or gold, a former senior state banker was quoted as saying.

Ahmad Hatami-Yazd, the former managing director of Iran’s state-owned Bank Saderat, said Iran had been moving away from dollars since the period when the central bank governor was Mohsen Nourbakhsh, the daily Poul reported on Wednesday. Nourbakhsh died in 2003 and Ebrahim Sheibani now heads the central bank.

“Considering the American threats, Iran’s central bank, since Nourbaksh was the governor, decided to change its currency reserve from dollars to other currencies and up to now 70 percent of the total of these currency reserves has been changed to non-dollar currencies and gold bullion,” Khatami-Yazd said.

Central bank officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Senior central bank officials have previously declined to give the total amount of reserves or detail the mix. Khatami-Yazd’s comments, originally published by a local news agency, were also carried in other newspapers.

This month, a state-owned newspaper said U.S. dollars may now make up less than a third of Iran’s foreign reserves, down from 40 percent. Iranian officials have previously said the Islamic Republic was seeking to do less business in dollars.

The Islamic government of Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, is under pressure from Washington, which has clamped down on financial transactions with it to punish it for alleged support for terrorism and nuclear bomb ambitions. Tehran denies the charges.

Khatami-Yazd said it was better for Iran to switch its reserves because of the U.S. pressure and also because of the current weakness of the U.S. currency. “Considering the dollar situation in the last year, even if there were no sanctions, Iran should have changed its currency basket,” he said.

The United States imposes sanctions on U.S. trade and investment in Iran but has also been trying to isolate Iran financially by pressing international banks to cut ties.

Bankers in Iran say most foreign banks have stopped dollar business with Iran. Most transfers of funds by foreign banks now take place in euros or other currencies, they say.

Economy minister Davud Danesh-Jafari said in November Iran was not worried by such restrictions and was becoming less dependent on the dollar for business transactions. Officials also said Iran was taking some oil payments in euros.