Bundesbank president, Mr Hans Tietmeyer, has broken his silence on the controversial compromise over the presidency of the European Central Bank, casting doubt over the credibility of the new single European currency in international financial markets.

Speaking at an annual bankers' dinner in Frankfurt, Mr Tietmeyer said: "Not everything that happened last weekend in Brussels contributed to the necessary expectation that the euro will be a really supra-national and depoliticised currency."

Mr Tietmeyer's comments underline the irritation inside the Bundesbank about the deal, under which the Dutch banker, Mr Wim Duisenberg was appointed to a full eight-year term, but will agree to retire `voluntarily' after approximately four years. But Mr Tietmeyer stopped short of attacking all the elements of the agreement reached at the Brussels European Union summit. He said the choice of members of the ECB's six-strong executive board was "to be viewed favourably overall". In particular, German central bankers and economists welcomed the appointment of Dr Otto Issing, the Bundesbank's chief economist, to a full eight-year term.

Senior German banking economists also yesterday signalled readiness to embrace the "timesharing" agreement between Mr Duisenberg and Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Bank of France, who is to take over the ECB presidency after Mr Duisenberg retires. Mr Hermann Remsperger, chief economist of BHF-Bank, said: `It may take some time to forget what happened last weekend, but people will soon focus on the real economic issues, the strong current account surplus and accelerating economic growth in the euro area."

Mr Norbert Walter, chief economist of Deutsche Bank, defended the compromise over the presidency as "sensible".