ECB's spread-fighting tool will have 'safeguards': Lagarde

SINTRA, Portugal (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's upcoming bond-buying programme will rein in a disorderly widening of bond yield spreads in the euro zone while keeping the pressure on governments to keep their budgets in order, the ECB's President Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday.

"The new instrument will have to be effective, while being proportionate and containing sufficient safeguards to preserve the impetus of Member States towards a sound fiscal policy," she told the ECB's annual forum in Sintra, Portugal.

With the ECB set to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade next month, Lagarde said the central bank will move gradually but with the option to act decisively on any deterioration in medium-term inflation, especially if there are signs of a de-anchoring of inflation expectations.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by Balazs Koranyi)