Emerging economies are shifting away from the unstable dollar in favor of other currencies. Beijing and Moscow agreed Wednesday to expand the use of the ruble and yuan in bilateral trade to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao made the agreement at a bilateral summit between the two countries held in the Kremlin, Moscow, a day after taking part in the first summit of the so-called BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China to represent fast-growing developing economies -- reported Bloomberg.

Russia, the world's largest energy supplier, wants to sell oil to China using the ruble. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, chairman of Russia's largest oil company OAO Rosneft, was quoted in Bloomberg as saying "Energy sales in rubles are a 'strategic' issue for Russia, with oil exports to China over the next 20 years expected to surpass $100 billion."

Elina Ribakova, Citigroup Inc.'s chief economist said that it will take "at least a couple of years to start converting the first contracts into domestic currencies" and that the agreement has "important symbolic value." "If you take a 10 or 20-year perspective, trade between Russia and China will increase significantly," she added.

According to the Russian government, trade volume between Russia and China recorded an all-time high of $56.8 billion last year.

Other BRIC countries also expressed their concern with the dollar at the summit. The leaders of BRIC countries said they have discussed measures to strengthen their currencies, including purchasing each other's in the form of bonds and cash, citing the need for alternatives to the U.S. dollar as a "super currency."

"The dollar has weakened whenever talk about an alternative reserve currency makes the headlines. Calls for currency diversification have come mainly from emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, or the BRIC nations," Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University said Tuesday at a Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in New York.