Frankfurt  - European Central Bank (ECB) plans to build a landmark headquarters building in Frankfurt suffered a painful setback Wednesday, with the bank admitting that no construction company would build it for the budgeted price.

A Vienna-based architecture practice, Coop Himmelblau, designed the complex, with angled twin glass towers atop a former wholesale market that is being preserved as an example of early concrete architecture.

The ECB, which issues the euro, one of the world's main reserve currencies, budgeted 500 million euros (780 million dollars) for the new building. It says the Austrian designers assured it the building could be erected for that price.

Abandoning the tendering process, which began last August, gives the bank the option of increasing the budget or simplifying the design of a glass building that was supposed to symbolize the bank's ambition to be "transparent" in its dealings.

A statement said the tendering by potential main contractors had failed to produce "an economically satisfactory outcome," since the bids had far exceeded the budget. The central bank is to review the options in the next few weeks.

Foundation work for the riverside building has already begun, with the ground excavated and piles already driven to support the towers.

The bank had hoped to move out of rented office space in 2011 to the purpose-built site. The entire relocation project has been budgeted to cost 850 million euros, including the purchase of land. (dpa)