A further cloud was cast over the succession at the European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday when a Paris court said it would only announce a verdict on Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, the governor of the Bank of France, on June 18th.

The decision came at the end of a five-week trial in which Mr Trichet, one of Europe's most respected central bankers, was one of nine people charged with various offences of allegedly massaging the accounts of the Crédit Lyonnais bank in the early 1990s.

The French central bank governor is due to take over from Mr Wim Duisenberg as president of the ECB on July 9th. Mr Duisenberg had already put back his early retirement from the bank because of the Crédit Lyonnais affair.

Lawyers said last night that the four-month delay in sentencing was "unusually long". It leaves little time before Mr Duisenberg's proposed retirement ahead of the summer break.