Trichet says ECB in secondary bond market to stay

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is actively buying bonds on the second market and plans to continue to do so, President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Tuesday.

"We are in the secondary market," Trichet told Europe 1 radio. Asked whether the ECB planned to buy bonds direct from distressed European states. "This is not what we should do, and not what we can do," he said.

On Monday, the ECB intervened in markets to buy Italian and Spanish bonds, forcing down Italian and Spanish borrowing costs after a weekend of crisis diplomacy between G7 and G20 leaders.

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage and Nick Vinocur; editing by Patrick Graham)