FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Top European Central Bank officials were united over the need for more stimulus at their last meeting but a number of them objected to the decision to launch bond purchases involving the injection of newly printed money into the economy.

The written account of the meeting released Thursday says that "all members" agreed on the need for some kind of additional stimulus.

But "a number of members assessed the case for renewed asset purchases as not sufficiently strong," saying that they would either be ineffective or should be held back as a last resort.

The 25-member rate-setting council in the end decided by "clear majority" to start 20 billion euros ($22 billion) in purchases a month and to cut a key interest benchmark to minus 0.5% from minus 0.4%.