REFILE-ECB has no pre-set response to MidEast tensions, Lagarde says

BOLOGNA, Italy, March 5 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has no pre-set stance as regards to geopolitical tensions from the conflict in the Middle East and will decide monetary policy on a "meeting-by-meeting" basis, President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

The ECB will take its decisions "in view of all the data that we can harness, and that we can analyse, and that we can scrutinize with sufficient confidence," Lagarde said in a Q&A session at the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy.

There is no "preset pace for our monetary policy stance. And I think that if you bring these two elements together, it places the ECB and the euro system in a good position to monitor very carefully and to try to understand what the consequences of the current shocks will be in the future," she added.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has spread to other countries in the Gulf, is threatening to drive up inflation and hit sluggish euro zone growth by making energy more expensive and disrupting supply chains.