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In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa on Sunday, Trichet said the governing council as a whole did not agree with Weber's remark last week that the ECB's government bond-buying program had not worked and should be scrapped.

"That is not the position of the governing council, in an overwhelming majority," he said.

He also struck a less hawkish note on interest rate policy than Weber, an influential member of the governing council, repeating the statement he made at the ECB's most recent press conference that current interest rates were appropriate.

Last week, Weber, one of the top candidates to take over when Trichet's ECB term expires next year, said policy makers should not wait too long before withdrawing emergency liquidity measures and raising interest rates.

Weber's hawkish comments prompted widespread speculation of divisions among the ECB's leaders and Trichet emphasized that there was "one president, who is also spokesman of the governing council."

He repeated calls for decisive action by European governments to shore up their battered public finances and urged tougher measures against countries which break budget rules, including quasi-automatic sanctions.

But he said that if a crisis threatened to re-occur, it could be useful to create a permanent structure for managing renewed turmoil after the European Financial Stability Facility, the temporary bailout mechanism set up in May, expires in 2013.

Referring to exchange rate fluctuations that have raised fears of a currency war between global powers as the dollar has fallen sharply against other major currencies, Trichet repeated warnings against excessively violent swings.

He also said it was important that U.S. authorities had confirmed their long-standing position that a strong dollar was in the interests of the United States.

(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Nick Macfie)