By Paul Carrel and Anna Willard
PRAGUE, April 3 (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers hailed G20 decisions on the tripling of IMF funds and regulatory reform as ambitious on Friday and said they expected more interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank.
World leaders clinched a $1.1 trillion deal on Thursday to combat the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and said financial rules would be tightened to stop it happening again -- a more ambitious outcome than initially expected.
"I think we made great progress. I'm very satisfied," German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said on arrival for an informal meeting of euro zone finance ministers and the European Central Bank, called the Eurogroup, in Prague.
But the ECB cut interest rates by only 25 basis points to 1.25 percent on Thursday, surprising markets which had expected a 50 basis point cut amid deepening economic gloom.
"I am confident it is only a matter of time before they will further reduce interest rates," Cyprus Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis told reporters.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet signalled the ECB, which has already reduced rates six times since last October, could take another 25 basis points off the refi rate in May.
Finnish Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen said on Thursday there was room for further easing "some time in the future" while the chairman of euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the last cut was pointing in the right direction.
The Eurogroup will be joined by the rest of the EU's finance ministers and central bank governors later on Friday and Saturday for a review of the G20 decisions, budget deficits and plans for EU regulatory and supervisory reform.
The show of unity at the G20 on Thursday convinced investors to keep a risk-taking rally alive on Friday, lifting Asian stocks a fourth day.
"You saw the markets' reaction yesterday," French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said before the Eurogroup meeting.
"This isn't something that is done in a day, but these are really good foundations for reconstructing a more stable system," she said of the G20 conclusions.
The G20 leaders agreed to triple the IMF's resources to $750 billion and to a package worth $250 billion over two years to support global trade flows, which are forecast to fall 9 percent this year.
"It was a huge stimulus that is made available for emerging countries, and we know that that is where it hits the worst, and that is where it will kick off the fastest," Lagarde said.
The leaders of the world's richest and biggest economies, which account for more than 80 percent of world trade, also agreed to tighten rules on tax havens, hedge funds and credit rating agencies.
They said the measures agreed to would raise world output by 4 percent by the end of 2010, although they were hazy on the amount of stimulus spending to date, with estimates ranging between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.
Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proll said the higher IMF funds were good news for the economies of central and eastern Europe, where Austrian banks have been very active, and which have been hit hard by the global economic crisis.
Latvia, Romania, Hungary and Ukraine and other countries have been forced to ask for IMF funds to support their finances after global risk aversion and credit crunch made capital scarce, opening up the prospect of a balance of payments and banking crises.
"It is good for stabilising new economies in central and Eastern Europe," Proll said. (Editing by Andy Bruce)