Frankfurt  - Leading European figures gathered in Frankfurt Monday to officially mark the European Central Bank's ten anniversary with the ECB facing one of the most testing periods in its brief history.

While data released Friday showed surging oil and food prices driving inflation in the 15-member eurozone up to a 16-year high in May, the ECB is also grappling with slowing economic growth both in the currency bloc and around the world.

However, finance ministers attending Monday's anniversary ceremonies were quick to rule out Monday a call from French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the European Union to consider sinking the value-added tax on heating oil and petrol as part of an effort to ease the pressure on businesses in the EU.

Earlier this month the oil price hit a record high of 135.09 dollars a barrel, triggering protests from truck drivers through to fishermen across Europe.

But finance ministers from Germany, Spain and the Netherlands rejected any moves to cut oil taxes with Spanish Economics and Finance Minister Pedro Solbes saying "it was not a good idea.

"The oil price is set by the market," said Solbes, the former EU economics commissioner, who added that more effort should be directed towards reducing the use of oil.

Echoing his views, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said: "We should not react politically and try to intervene. That has in the past resulted in mistakes."

Speaking in Frankfurt, the Netherlands Finance Minister Wouter Bos said: "We must make our economies less dependent on the oil price.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso are also to attend the formal ceremony in Frankfurt's historic opera house marking the ECB's 10th birthday with the bank taking over as the eurozone's chief monetary custodian in June 1998.

As part of the celebrations, the ECB opened its doors Sunday for people to visit its Frankfurt headquarters.

This included the chance to sit in the meeting room where the ECB's 21-head governing council gather to consider interest rate policy in the eurozone. (dpa)