FRANKFURT, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - The European Central Bank said Tuesday that it had recently sold 30 tonnes of gold, on top of 42 tonnes sold in late 2007 under a central bank agreement.

While the ECB did not provide financial details of the sale, with gold prices at around 917 dollars an ounce, the latest sale would have a value on the order of 950 million dollars (600 million euros).

The sales, which were completed on Monday, conformed to the Central Banks? Gold Agreement of September 27 2005, which limits gold sales to 500 tonnes per year during the period between 2004 and 2009.

It was signed by 15 European central banks, including the ECB, and followed an agreement reached in 1999 called the Washington Accord, in which European central banks agreed to an annual sales limit of 400 tonnes per year to prevent gold prices from plunging.

At the time, gold was worth around 260 dollars an ounce.

The ECB, which announced in early December that it had just sold 42 tonnes of gold, said Tuesday that it was not its intention 'to sell more gold in the current year of the agreement,' which begins and ends in late September.