Saudi Arabia's central bank is not interested in buying distressed or speculative assets such as troubled European debt and gold and the OPEC member's banks are well positioned to withstand the euro zone crisis, its head said on Saturday.

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Gold, which has tumbled from a record high of above $1,920 an ounce, is another asset of little interest to the Saudi central bank due to its volatility, Jasser said.

"We have gold in our reserves but we have not bought and we have not sold it in a very long time. It has become a very speculative asset and we do not get into any speculative assets," he said.

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