Fed chief should get a fifth term, says Bush

Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, seemed certain to be running US monetary policy into his 80s last night after President Bush said the 77-year-old deserved another four-year term.

Asked in an interview whether the Fed chairman should remain at the helm beyond the end of his current term next June, Mr Bush said: "Yes, I think Alan Greenspan should get another term."

The White House was keen to reassure the markets that there would be continuity at the Fed and end speculation that Mr Greenspan had lost the president's confidence after he appeared to be lukewarm about the administration's controversial proposals for a $726bn package of tax cuts.

There had been speculation in the markets that Martin Feldstein, a Harvard professor and former chief economic adviser to Ronald Reagan, had been singled out for the job, but Washington insisted yesterday that it wanted to stick with Mr Greenspan. "The president thinks he has done a very able job as a steward of the economy," spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Mr Bush's seal of approval came on the day that the chairman had surgery for an enlarged prostate.

As the Fed's chairman since 1987, Mr Greenspan presided over the recession during the early 1990s - and America's surging equity markets later in the decade.