The European Central Bank has disappointed many euro-zone governments by refusing to cut interest rates - holding the main rate at 4.75 per cent.

It is the only major central bank not to have reduced rates this year amid growing fears of a US-led global economic slowdown. "You might say I hear but I don't listen," said the bank's outspoken president Wim Duisenburg. The Sun as branded the euro chief "Deaf and Dim Wim".