The reciprocal facilities agreement between Argentina and China which enables them to skip the dollar in their commercial exchanges has arrived in a context of growing questioning of the U.S. Dollar as an international currency.

The agreement announced yesterday allows Argentina to buy Chinese goods with a credit line of 70,000 million yuan (about U.S. $ 10,000 million), while Argentina offers China an equivalent amount in pesos.

China has signed similar agreements with South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Belarus, while Argentina has signed with Brazil.

Last week the Chinese central bank president, Zhou Xiaochuan, surprised many by stating that the current crisis required the creation of a new world currency to replace the dollar.

Speaking to the BBC, the president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said that the G-20 summit this week must address this issue.

"It is clear that the current monetary system has not helped to deal with the challenges of this," said Medvedev.

One question unthinkable until a few months ago is beginning to become part of the debate triggered by the global economic crisis: Are we at the beginning of the end of the dollar as an international currency? The reign of the dollar, unquestionable since the war, is under the microscope as never before. translation from news.bbc.co.uk