The European Central Bank on Thursday extended its cash lifeline for banks, while its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, urged national euro-zone regulators to take steps to resuscitate confidence in the health of their financial institutions. 'We encourage them to do all that is necessary to improve the sentiment of the market,' Trichet said after the central bank's regular monetary policy meeting, at which it kept its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent, a historic low. The Bank of England also left its rate unchanged Thursday, at an all-time low of 0.5 percent. Fears among European banks about each others' creditworthiness have caused them to cut back lending to each other, leading to calls for bank regulators to share more information about which institutions may be most vulnerable to the sovereign debt crisis. In a sign that many banks are still not able to borrow what they need from each other, the central bank committed to provide at least three more rounds of unlimited, three-month loans at the benchmark interest rate. The announcement assures banks that the emergency cash will be available at least through the end of the year. The improved outlook for this year, calling for growth of 0.7 percent to 1.3 percent, did not change expectations that the bank is unlikely to tamper with interest rates for many months to come. For 2011, central bank economists projected growth of 0.2 percent to 2.2 percent, slightly lower than previous estimates, because a decline was likely in domestic demand. Trichet would not provide more details about the purchase of government bonds, which began May 10 amid signs that the market for Greek, Portuguese and other sovereign debt was close to seizing up. As of June 4, the European Central Bank had purchased bonds worth 40.5 billion euros, ($49.1 billion) on open markets. But the bank has been criticized for not saying what kinds of bonds it is buying or how much it will buy in the future. The Bank of England's policy committee also voted to leave its asset purchasing program at 200 billion pounds ($294 billion), the central bank said in a statement. In Britain, the pound has taken a beating against the dollar and the euro because of concern among some investors that Britain is not acting quickly enough to reduce its giant budget deficit. David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain, on Monday warned voters that planned spending cuts would be the deepest in a generation and 'affect every single person in the country.' 