By Francesco Canepa

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi intended to signal tolerance for a period of weaker inflation, not an imminent policy tightening, when his comments sent the euro higher this week, sources familiar with Draghi's thinking said on Wednesday.

The ECB declined to comment.

Draghi's comments on Tuesday, taken as a hawkish swing, sent the euro and bond yields sharply higher.

The sources said Draghi wanted to acknowledge the recent, strong economic data and prepare the market for an autumn decision on the future of the ECB's 2.3 trillion euros bond-buying programme but without making any commitment.

He also wanted to note that the ECB will not automatically ease policy due to the current slowdown in inflation, which is seen at 1.2 percent in June and is expected to hover around that level next year.

Instead, the central bank is prepared to let prices take longer to reach its target of just under 2 percent, even after more than four years of inflation misses.

But the speech was full of caveats, which also imply that the ECB is still ready to ease policy if financing conditions tighten as a result, for example, of a stronger euro or higher yields in the United States or Europe, the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

"The market failed to take note of the caveats in Draghi's speech," one of them said.

Traders took the comments as a signal the ECB was gearing up to wind down the programme as early as January, an outcome that officials said had yet to be discussed and will ultimately depend on inflation and other economic data in the coming months. (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt/Mark John)