CHICAGO/CLEVELAND, March 27 (Reuters) – Three Federal
Reserve doves on Wednesday stoutly defended the central bank’s
bond buying to spur U.S. growth, but one official normally
viewed as a centrist suggested it would not take much more
improvement in job creation to warrant scaling it back.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto,
among four Fed policy makers speaking in public on Wednesday,
sounded a cautious note on the need to maintain the current pace
of purchases that might hint at a shift in the consensus.

CHICAGO, March 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve would
do best to keep buying assets at its current $85-billion-a-month
pace until the jobs market is on firmer ground, a point that
probably won’t be reached until the end of the year, a top Fed
official said on Wednesday.

Cutting back sooner on bond purchases, as some top Fed
officials have advocated, could undercut what has so far been a
successful program, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans told a
small group of reporters.