European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Friday the central bank's extraordinary policy measures to keep the financial system functioning will be unwound in a "timely and orderly fashion."

The financial crisis is easing, with some areas of the financial system showing "significant" recovery, although some institutions are still in the process of de-leveraging, he said.

"We have made it clear that we will unwind enhanced credit support in a timely and orderly fashion," Trichet told a conference in London.

"Last week we began to initiate, in a gradual fashion, the unwinding from some of these exceptional measures," he said.

The ECB kept interest rates on hold last week but announced plans to start phasing out the extra liquidity operations which have pumped billions of euros in extra funds into the financial system to combat the crisis. Analysts expect rates to remain on hold until the last quarter of 2010.