Factbox: Fed officials' comments on the economy, policy

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve said this month it will buy an additional $600 billion in longer-term Treasury bonds by June 2011 to support the U.S. economic recovery.

Fed officials considered more drastic options at their November 2-3 meeting, according to minutes released on Tuesday. Internal divisions could make it more difficult for the committee to extend easing if the need arises. For more see.

The following are some recent comments from Fed policymakers (* denotes 2010 voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets U.S. monetary policy):

MINUTES OF NOV. 2-3 FOMC MEETING, released November 23

"Most members judged it appropriate to take action to promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with the Committee's mandate.

"A few participants expected that continuing resource slack would lead to some further disinflation in coming years...However, a few others thought that the exceptionally accommodative stance of monetary policy, coupled with rising prices of energy and other commodities ... made it more likely that inflation would increase."

MINNEAPOLIS FED PRESIDENT NARAYANA KOCHERLAKOTA, November 22

"Inflation and employment are both too low, and the pace of recovery is too slow. Economic growth is low and softening further... "I believe that QE is a move in the right direction."

*FED CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE, November 19

"The best way to continue to deliver the strong economic fundamentals that underpin the value of the dollar, as well as to support the global recovery, is through policies that lead to a resumption of robust growth in a context of price stability in the United States."

*PHILADELPHIA FED PRESIDENT CHARLES PLOSSER, November 18

"Some even worry that the economy might fall into a deflationary trap. I am not one of them. Indeed, I am more optimistic than many about the future path of the economy.

"The committee specifically said we will reevaluate and assess the progress of QEII on a regular basis and I take that assessment in a serious way."

*CLEVELAND FED PRESIDENT SANDRA PIANALTO, November 18

"Responding to inflationary and disinflationary pressures gets to the heart of what a central bank can and must do...My belief is that by promoting price stability, the Federal Reserve is following the best course for supporting the economic recovery."

*FED BOARD GOVERNOR KEVIN WARSH, November 18

"Monetary policy has an important role to play...but it is not a predominant role."

*ST. LOUIS FED PRESIDENT JAMES BULLARD, November 17

"That disinflation trend is something that I'm worried about and I think we should take action to turn around; that's part of the reason I supported the second round of quantitative easing.

"As the forecast looks right now it looks like we'll be purchasing at this pace through the end of the second quarter to add up to $600 billion."

*BOSTON FED PRESIDENT ERIC ROSENGREN, November 17

"If the economy were to weaken and we were to get further disinflation and a higher unemployment rate, then we would have to reflect on whether we should take additional action."

ATLANTA FED PRESIDENT DENNIS LOCKHART, November 16

"There is no monetary policy intent to engineer specific values -- or even a direction-- for the dollar."

CHICAGO FED PRESIDENT CHARLES EVANS, November 16

"I would continue to want to apply accommodative monetary policy until I had some confidence that that situation was changing," he said, referring to high unemployment and low inflation.

*NEW YORK FED PRESIDENT WILLIAM DUDLEY, November 16

"We have no goal in terms of pushing the dollar up or down. Our goal is to ease financial conditions and to stimulate a stronger economic expansion and more rapid employment growth."

"It's going to make the economy grow a little bit faster. It's going to generate a little bit more employment growth. But you know, we have a long bumpy road to travel."

*FED BOARD VICE CHAIR JANET YELLEN, November 15

"This should not be regarded as some sort of chapter in a currency war.

"The question is: Do we have an effective policy that we can adopt?...If we do, and it actually produces expected benefits and addresses risks that we face, then there is a clear case for doing it, even if it is not going to be a panacea."

RICHMOND FED PRESIDENT JEFFREY LACKER, November 13

"The decision has been made. I was one who thought the risks exceeded the benefits."

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Kenneth Barry)