European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday the bank will start buying 60 billion euros (some 85 billion U.S. dollars) of covered bonds from July in a bid to revive the credit market.

The ECB will buy the low-risk bonds in the primary and secondary markets from next month to June 2010, but does not plan to purchase any other assets, Trichet said at a press conference in Frankfurt after the bank's governing council decided to keep its benchmark interest rate at a historical low of 1.0 percent.

"Perhaps we will concentrate on medium- to long-term, three to 10 years" for the purchase program, Trichet said, adding that purchases will be spread over the euro area.

The ECB governing council made the decision to buy 60 billion euros of covered bonds at a meeting in early May as part of its policy of enhanced credit support. But the decision triggered criticism from German Chancellor Angela Merkel who accused the ECB of going too far under international pressure.

Axel Weber, president of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, also argued that buying assets to flood the economy with money was an unnecessary risk that could sow the seeds of a future crisis.

Trichet said on Thursday that in a telephone conservation with Merkel on Wednesday, the German leader told him that she fully respects the independence of the ECB.

Source:Xinhua