When the six leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council member states open their normally unspectacular annual summit in Qatar on Monday, the attention of many in the financial world will be guaranteed.

The ostensible purpose of the meeting in Doha is to discuss plans for monetary union by 2010. But after weeks of heated debate, markets will be studying the minutiae of the GCC leaders’ words for any hint of whether key members of the organisation, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will retain long-standing pegs to the weak US dollar or look to revalue their currencies.