The European Central Bank has already begun to undo exceptional measures taken amidst the global financial crisis but will go more slowly than the US Federal Reserve owing to the eurozone's fragile state, analysts say. The Fed raised on Thursday the rate it charges for emergency loans to banks, a surprise move seen as the start of an exit strategy from radical measures begun in mid 2007 that sought to jolt the US economy from recession. The ECB began in December to unwind what it calls 'enhanced credit support,' mainly unlimited loans to commercial banks, and does not need to take specific steps but can just let measures run out according to an established timetable. The last 12-month loans of central bank cash took place in December and the last six-month operation has been set for late March. 'The ECB can simply go back to normal three month refinancing operations, this already takes a lot of liquidity out of the markets,' ING senior economist Carsten Brzeski told selfnews. The 16-nation eurozone economy is much weaker than that of the United States, which might allow the Fed to move more quickly than the ECB. 'We have the impression that if there is a bias on the US side, it will be towards an accelerated unwinding of the support measures,' Deutsche Bank economist Gilles Moec told selfnews. Global Economics chief international economist Julian Jessop stressed however that 'the normalisation of some monetary policy tools (whether the restoration of usual interest rate spreads or the withdrawal of emergency facilities) does not mean that key policy rates are going up any time soon.' The Fed announced its decision after leading US economic indicators rose for the 10th consecutive month in January. On Friday however, a closely-watched survey of eurozone private business activity showed a 'worrying slowdown' in the all-important services sector, reinforcing worries over what is expected to be a hesitant recovery. The eurozone is also struggling with deficit and debt crises in several member states that have raised the question of its ultimate credibility and cohesion. That has forced governments to announce strict fiscal belt-tightening moves which will influence ECB policymakers when they meet in two weeks to mull changes to the bloc's monetary policy. Moec resumed their position as 'I don't have a very good economic climate, I probably also have budget tightening, I therefore don't really want to accelerate the pace' of normalising money supply and interest rates. Brzeski did not believe the ECB would change its exit strategy just because of the fiscal crisis in Greece. But he acknowledged a question mark remained over whether Greek banks now depended on the ECB's generous allocations of cash loans. 'If the ECB now withdraws the liquidity, could this mean that Greek banks could get into trouble,' he asked. At the same time, the ECB has made it clear since December that 'the times of free refills are over,' the ING economist noted. 'Like the Fed the ECB will withdraw now and test the interbank market a little bit,' but Brzeski stressed that within the eurozone, 'it has to be very gentle.' Moec felt the Fed's move 'confirmed it wants to withdraw exceptional measures at a relatively rapid pace.' 