Many Federal Reserve officials said more progress in the labormarket is needed before deciding to slow the pace of assetpurchases, according to minutes of their last meeting. “Mostobserved that the outlook for the labor market had shown progress”since the-bond buying program began in September, according to therecord of the April 30-May 1 gathering released today inWashington. “But many of these participants indicated thatcontinued progress, more confidence in the outlook, or diminisheddownside risks would be required before slowing the pace ofpurchases would become appropriate.”

Policy makers said May 1 that they may accelerate or slowmonthly purchases of $40 billion in mortgage securities and $45billion of Treasuries in response to changes in the labor marketand inflation. They also pledged to hold the target interest ratenear zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and theoutlook for inflation doesn't exceed 2.5 percent.

A number of officials said they were willing to taper bondbuying as early as the next meeting on June 17-18 if economicreports show “evidence of sufficiently strong and sustainedgrowth,” according to the minutes.