These commitments, he said, had been made to president Jacques Chirac and made public during a Brussels summit in May. France has been assuming that Duisenberg, who promised for reasons of age to step down early, would quit after four years, making way for Bank of France head Jean-Claude Trichet. Duisenberg's latest comments, reviving a row about the ECB presidency on the eve of the launch of the euro, were the clearest sign yet that he might not go along with France's view of the May deal. Duisenberg said in May that he would stay at least to see through the introduction of euro notes and coins in 2002 -- comments taken by France to mean hewould leave around then.

"His comments were enshrined in writing, they are public, and everyone knows them and therefore I see no reason to fear that Mr Duisenberg will not stick to what he said," Strauss-Kahn told a news conference.