LONDON (AP) - Members of the Bank of England's committee that sets interest rates are largely in agreement on policy, minutes from the group's August meeting revealed yesterday - though two members disagreed with the decision to leave rates unchanged.

The minutes recorded that seven of the nine Monetary Policy Committee's members voted to hold interest rates at five percent for the fourth consecutive month. David Blanchflower voted for a quarter percent cut, and Tim Besley voted for a quarter percent rise.

The broad agreement supports analysts' expectations - based on Bank of England governor Mervyn King's comments on August 7 - that rates will be cut early next year after inflation peaks at five percent.

"We can't really take much out of what happened today," said James Hughes, a currency analyst with CMC Markets. "There's still about a 60 percent probability of a rate cut happening in January of 2009."

The pound fell below $1.86 in trading yesterday morning from $1.8660 on Tuesday.