European Central Bank council member Nout Wellink said interest rates in the dozen euro nations are still ``damn low,'' suggesting he may support further increases next year. ``The underlying tendency is still an inflation rate above 2 percent,'' said Wellink in an interview yesterday after giving a speech at the Dutch University of Groningen. ``It is our firm intention to bring it again below or close to 2 percent,'' he said, referring to the bank's inflation limit. Wellink and other ECB council members including President Jean-Claude Trichet are preparing the ground for the sixth rate increase in a year next month as the fastest growth since 2000 and excess money supply threaten to fuel inflation. Futures trading shows investors expect a further move in 2007, which would take the ECB's key rate to 3.75 percent. ``There is an abundance of liquidity,'' said Wellink, who also heads the Dutch central bank. The yield on the three-month Euribor futures contract for June rose to 3.94 percent today, up from 3.91 percent on Nov. 10. The contracts settle to the three-month inter-bank offered rate for the euro, which has averaged 16 basis points more than the ECB's benchmark rate since the currency's start in 1999. The central bank's governing council next decides on rates on Dec. 7, when it will have new growth and inflation forecasts. While Wellink wouldn't give an inflation forecast for 2008, Austrian colleague Klaus Liebscher has said the projections will be ``very decisive'' in guiding ECB policy