FRANKFURT, June 27: US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will meet with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet here next week during the former’s five-day tour of Europe, an ECB spokeswoman said on Friday.

Paulson would visit the ECB headquarters on Tuesday, two days before the bank announces its latest decision on eurozone interest rates, widely expected to be a quarter-point increase to 4.25 per cent.

The ECB spokeswoman did not say what Paulson and Trichet would discuss, but Paulson’s office said on Tuesday he would meet government officials in three countries and take part in talks on a range of economic and financial issues.

His June 29-July 3 tour was to include visits to Moscow, Berlin, Frankfurt and London.

The US Treasury has imposed financial sanctions on Iranian banks and companies in relation to Tehran’s nuclear power drive and over alleged terrorist financing. Paulson, a former chief of the Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, was also to give a speech in London on Tuesday.—AFP