Mr Wim Duisenberg has agreed to postpone his retirement as President of the European Central Bank (ECB) until a court case against his likely successor, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, is over.

EU finance ministers meeting in Athens expressed satisfaction at Mr Duisenberg's decision to stay on for an unspecified period beyond his planned retirement date of July 9th.

Mr Trichet, the governor of the Banque de France, will hear on June 18th if he has been acquitted of collusion in the publication of misleading accounts by Crédit Lyonnais bank in the early 1990s.

Mr Duisenberg (67) was appointed in 1998 for an eight-year term but, before taking office, he said he would be unlikely to serve his full term because of his age. He has consistently denied that a deal was made before his appointment, under which he would step down halfway through his term to make way for Mr Trichet.

Mr Duisenberg denied on Saturday that, by staying in office to facilitate Mr Trichet's appointment, he was confirming that a deal had been struck.

"I keep on insisting that there was no deal other than that I regarded it as unlikely that I would serve the full term. I will be president of the ECB until my duly appointed successor can take office," he said.

The finance ministers decided not to specify how long Mr Duisenberg will remain in office but the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said he expected the extension would last only a few months."I would assume it will be after the summer holidays," he said.

If Mr Trichet is acquitted in June and the prosecutor does not appeal against the verdict, he could be nominated and appointed as ECB president as early as September. If the prosecutor does appeal, however, the legal process could continue for up to two years.

A source close to Mr Duisenberg said that the ECB president does not want to remain in office for too long because he wants to pursue other interests.

The ministers failed to agree on a successor to ECB executive council member, Ms Sirkka Hamalainen, who leaves office in May.

The overwhelming majority of ministers wanted to appoint Ms Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, the deputy governor of the Austrian central bank but Belgium insists that the job should go to the Belgian economist, Mr Paul De Grauwe.

The appointments must be agreed unanimously. The Greek presidency said it would attempt to persuade Belgium to drop its objection.