The Governor of the Bank of England today gave the clearest indication yet of his frustration over the protracted search for a successor to Richard Lambert on the Bank's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.

In what will be seen as a veiled attack on Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has the final say on MPC appointments, Mervyn King made clear his frustration with the "very informal" system currently operated.

He said it led to "last minute" decisions being made on new MPC recruits.

The Treasury is yet to give any indication on when it will announce a replacement for Richard Lambert who left the MPC in March to become director-general of the CBI, the employers' organisation.

The tragic death of David Walton last week means the MPC, which should have nine members, is set to meet next month with only seven for the first time since 1997. The quorum is six.

"It’s the timing. It’s not the people or how the process works in essence. It’s trying to find a mechanism for ensuring that decisions are taken in a timely way," Mr King today told a parliamentary committee.

"At present (we have) something that is very informal and seems to result in appointments being made very much at the last minute. I can’t think of anyone who benefits from that."

A Treasury spokesman responded by saying that the process for appointing MPC members was carried out in secret because of the risk of a public shortlist causing a reaction in the markets.

Mr King had earlier conceded that getting the right man or woman for the job was paramount, but wondered aloud whether the system could be formalised.

"There will always be vacancies when people leave unexpectedly, and it’s more important to take one’s time to get the appointment right than to rush into a replacement. The FOMC [the MPC's equivalent] in the United States has had a vacancy for over a year," he said.

"What matters is getting it right. But to do that I suspect does mean a slightly more systematic process."

The system of appointing MPC members sparked controversy earlier this year when David Blanchflower, a United States-based academic, was chosen to replace Stephen Nickell. It was widely believed that Professor Blanchflower had not figures on the informal shortlists drawn up by senior Bank figures.

There were also doubts on whether he would be able to track the UK economy as he will commute from the US to the UK for just 12 days a month to carry out his MPC duties.

The MPC is widely expected to keep rates on hold next month, at 4.5 per cent, for the eleventh consecutive meeting.

US GDP expanded at an annualised rate of 5.6 per cent in the first three months of the year, the US Commerce Department said. The revised figure beat previous readings of 5.3 per cent growth and matched economists' expectations.

In a separate report, the US Labor Department said that new claims filed for unemployment benefits last week rose by 4,000 to 313,000, a shade ahead of expectations.

However, the markets were waiting for the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates later today. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates to 5.25 per cent but economists will scour the remarks released with the decision for hints on ufture policy.

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