ECB seeks only minor change to League's plan on central bank gold reserves

ROME (Reuters) - The European Central Bank on Tuesday gave a substantial green light to a bill by Italy's ruling League party which seeks to spell out that gold reserves held by the Bank of Italy belong to the state, and not the bank itself.

The bill, tabled in February by the League's economics chief Claudio Borghi, was criticised by the opposition who said its aim was to allow the ruling coalition to potentially sell the gold to fix Italy's public finance problems.

In an official opinion published on the ECB's website, the bank said EU treaties do not use the concept of ownership with regard to official gold reserves, but only deal with the question of their "exclusive holding and management."

(Reporting By Gavin Jones)