ABUJA: Senior officials from the five-nation West African Monetary Zone met yesterday in the Nigerian capital Abuja to discuss an ambitious plan to bring in a joint currency by July 1, 2005.

Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone met Guinea's Central Bank Governor Ibrahim Bah, Ghana's Regional Co-operation Minister Kofi Apraku and Gambian Finance Minister Famara Jatta. The executive secretary of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), Mohammed bin Chambas, called on leaders to show rigorous fiscal responsibility to prepare the way for currency union.