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NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) The euro and sterling gained broadly on Thursday after the European Central Bank and Bank of England both raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point and signaled that further tightening may be needed to control inflation.

By contrast, signs that the U.S. Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its tightening cycle have been weighing on the dollar. The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and markets are pricing in just a 40 percent chance it will hike rates at the meeting.

In the ECB's statement after raising rates to 3.0 percent, bank President Jean-Claude Trichet flagged more interest rate increases.

He said monetary policy in the euro zone is still accommodative and that further rate increases will be needed if the bank's economic assumptions are confirmed.

''He just has a very long laundry list of inflationary pressures,'' said Lara Rhame, senior currency strategist at Credit Suisse in New York.

''But even though he hasn't said the word 'vigilant,' which sort of seems like code for 'expect another rate hike next time,' it seems like he's very clearly laying the groundwork for another move,'' she added.

The Bank of England surprised the markets with a quarter-point rate hike, taking interest rates to 4.75 percent. Its Monetary Policy Committee said it was time to reverse last August's quarter-point interest rate cut as the economy has strengthened to above its long-run trend rate and inflation was running half a percentage point above its target.

Analysts said that leaves room for more rate increases in Britain.

The euro rose 0.2 percent on the day to $1.2813 EUR=> and was up 0.4 percent against the yen at 147.24 yen EURJPY=>.

Sterling jumped to a two-month high against the dollar around $1.8914 GBP=>. Sterling also rose to a 2-1/2 month peak against the euro, pushing the euro down to 67.71 pence EURGBP=>.

The ECB's rate increase was the fourth since December. The move was widely expected as inflation remained well above the ECB's 2.0 percent limit and economic growth was within the bank's long-term trend rate.

A slim majority of analysts polled by Reuters expected the ECB to raise rates twice more this year to 3.5 percent, while the remainder forecast that the central bank would stop at 3.25 percent before an anticipated slowdown in euro zone growth in 2007.

But the BOE's rate hike was largely unexpected.

''The BoE statement ... leaves open the door for more tightening down the road, and in a market focused more on cyclical factors, such as relative growth and interest rates, rather than structural ones, higher UK rates add to the appeal of sterling,'' wrote HSBC Bank USA in a research note.

Higher interest rates generally boost a currency because they enhance the allure of short-term deposits.

The dollar rose 0.2 percent against the yen to 114.91 yen JPY=>. Against the Swiss franc, the dollar fell 0.1 percent to 1.2288 francs.

On a day dominated by central bank rate increases, the dollar hardly budged after the non-manufacturing survey for July came in weaker than expected. For details, see nWEN3275.

Markets will now turn their focus to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls for July, which could provide some clues as to what the Fed is likely to do at next week's monetary policy meeting.

''The U.S. rate cycle is nearing its end -- whether or not the Fed pauses next week, and that comes with more pronounced tightening to come in Europe and Japan. That opens the door for the dollar to trend lower over the final months of 2006,'' said Alex Beuzelin, senior market analyst, at Ruesch International in Washington.

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