The European Central Bank kicked off its operations yesterday as members of the central bank's board met to prepare for the first full council meeting, expected to be called on June 9th.

The group was expected to have spent part of the day simply moving into their offices, but also met to begin work on formulating details of how monetary policy will be conducted starting January 1st, 1999.

The ECB board, selected at a meeting in Brussels at the start of last month, comprises Dutchman Wim Duisenberg who was appointed president, Germany's Otmar Issing, Finland's Sirkka Hamalainen, Spain's Domingo Solans, Italy's Tomasso Padoa Schioppa and France's Christian Noyer.

Practical details of how to run a central bank will take up much of the group's time, but the primary task the ECB board faces is how to establish credible policies that will have the respect of financial markets.

Although the financial community highly regards each member of the board, many are still worried about political interference in policy formulation that could lead the bank to favour economic growth to low inflation.

Although the ECB will not actually take control of European interest rates until January, the policy-making council is expected to hold its first meeting on June 9th.

One of the major topics to be resolved will be who will take over the position of chief economist of the new central bank. Bundesbank chief economist Issing is seen as the frontrunner for that job.

They will also look at who should be responsible within the ECB for banking surveillance and who will be the contact person for dealings with international organisations.