FRANKFURT (AFX) - Bundesbank president Ernst Welteke said that selling foreign reserves to revamp social insurance systems and to bolster the state budget are not sustainable and not in line with EU regulations. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Welteke said that any sale of foreign reserves would be a "one-off", not structured support to government budgets, and would only delay the consolidation of the state budget. Consequently, a loss in confidence could not be ruled out, resulting in higher interest rates in the financial markets, Welteke said. "Every attempt by state branches to interfere with the administration of foreign reserves would mean a breach of the [Maastricht] Treaty and violate the independence of the Bundesbank," he told the FAZ. He said that a sale of foreign reserves would also mean a loss of a regular income for the state, underlining that the money resulting from a sale could not be freely spent. Only latent reserves lying in balancing items for revaluation could be successfully booked and be emitted together with the Bundesbank profit, he said.