Frankfurt  - The European Central Bank (ECB) said Thursday that the number of counterfeit euro banknotes jumped 5.4 per cent during the first half of the year.

But while the ECB said a total of 312,000 banks notes had been withdrawn from circulation during the first six months of 2008, the number represented only a very small fraction of the average 11.5 billion euro notes in circulation since the start of the year.

The Frankfurt-based bank also noted that there had been a 5.7-per- cent increase in genuine notes during the second half of 2007.

The ECB said that about 98 per cent of the counterfeit banks notes were recovered in the 15 nations sharing the euro. The 50 euro note was the most frequently counterfeited banknote during the first of the year. (dpa)