ECB HAS NO COMMENT TO MAKE ABOUT TRICHET INVESTIGATION.

The European Central Bank "does not wish to make any comment" in the wake of the announcement that Jean-Claude Trichet, the Governor of the Bank of France, is due to be questioned against the background of the near bankruptcy of the Credit Lyonnais, an ECB spokesman said on 28 April. Mr Trichet is a member by rights of the ECB, which is empowered to decide monetary policy for the Euro zone. The Frenchman was due to take over from the current ECB President, Wim Duisenberg, who is due to leave half way through his term of office - in January 2002, as a result of a compromise France managed to extract from its European partners on 2 May 1998. Mr Duisenberg said at the time that his decision to resign would be a "personal one". Since then, he has never acknowledged in public having made an undertaking to leave office before the end of his official eight-year term (non-renewable), thereby creating a great deal of doubt about his real intentions.The threat of a lengthy legal...