Iraq's cabinet approved a currency revaluation on Tuesday and set the exchange rate at 1,300 dinars per U.S. dollar, a cabinet statement said on Tuesday.

The Iraqi dinar had been selling at 1,470 dinars against the dollar before the New York Federal Reserve introduced tighter controls on international dollar transactions by commercial Iraqi banks in November.

The move by the Federal Reserve was designed to stop the illegal siphoning of dollars to Iran.

In recent weeks the dinar was selling at around 1,690 dinar per dollar.

(Reporting by Muhammed Al Gebaly and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Amina Ismail and Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)