The European Central Bank did not discuss buying government bonds in its policy meeting on Thursday, its head said, and he gave no indication the bank planned to introduce additional measures to boost lending.

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet spoke after the central bank kept interest rates on hold at a record low of 1.0 percent for the 12th month running.

Asked whether the ECB had talked about buying government bonds, Trichet said: I would say we did not discuss this option.

Markets are eager to learn whether the ECB has new tools available in its kit to help the debt-stricken Greece, and analysts see buying government bonds as the most forceful weapon left in the ECB's arsenal.

The euro fell to a new 14-month low of $1.2692 against the U.S. dollar during the news conference, made in Lisbon at one of two ECB meetings a year held outside Frankfurt.

Euro zone benchmark government bond futures turned positive and two-year debt yields hit a record low after Trichet said the bank had not discussed buying bonds.

Trichet also said the decision to scrap collateral rating requirements on Greek debt was an acknowledgement of the extent of the country's economic recovery programme and dismissed out of hand the prospect of Greece defaulting on its debt.

He gave no indication the bank planned to roll back the progressive unwinding of stimulus measures by adding longer maturities to its liquidity operations.

Trichet said non-conventional measures remained in place for one-week and one-month operations.

That's absolutely clear, and we have their full allotment (of) fixed-rate supply of liquidity, he said.

As far as three-month lending was concerned, it was not the bank's intention to push rates above 1 percent, Trichet said.

The ECB kept its economic assessment largely unchanged, saying it expected the economy to grow at a moderate pace this year, but growth could be uneven and uncertainty is high.

Rising global inflationary pressures were not yet threatening price stability in the euro zone, where domestic price pressures remain low, Trichet said.

However, commodity prices and areas seeing rapid growth were pushing up global inflation trends.

Looking ahead, global inflationary pressures may increase, driven mainly by price developments in commodity markets and in fast-growing economic regions of the world, while euro area domestic price pressures are still expected to remain contained, Trichet said in his opening statement.

Risks to price stability over the medium term are viewed as still remaining broadly balanced, he said of the euro zone.

He also repeated that the Governing Council sees rates as appropriate, implying no change is to be expected in the near future.

(Writing by Sakari Suoninen; editing by John Stonestreet)

European central bank Quantitative easing