WASHINGTON - THE former chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker will be appointed by president-elect Barack Obama to head an executive advisory committee on the economy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Mr Obama will appoint Mr Volcker, 81, to be chairman of a 'new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilise financial markets,' the daily reported, quoting unnamed Democratic officials.

Board members of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, as the panel will be known, will be drawn from a 'cross-section of citizens outside the government, chosen for their independence and nonpartisanship,' according to the newspaper.

The board will be modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board set up by US president Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 when, under the threat of the Cold War, US officials sought to created an advisory panel that could circumvent restrictive bureaucracy.

Mr Volcker earned his reputation as Fed chief in the 1980s by waging an unpopular battle against inflation.

During his tenure, the 6-foot-7-inch banker employed tight money policies to slay double-digit inflation - a strategy that proved successful but at the cost of a severe recession and intense public criticism. -- AFP