Fed's Fisher says rates may rise 'sooner rather than later'

ROME (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve may start raising rates around the spring of 2015, at the earlier end of market expectations, Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said on Thursday.

"It's assumed in the market place that we'll start our liftoff in raising interest rates some time between the spring and the summer," Fisher, a member of the Federal open Market Committee, the Fed's main policy making body said at a conference in Rome.

"I won't say what we're saying internally, that would not be appropriate, but maybe sooner rather than later," he said.

(Reporting by Gavin Jones and James Mackenzie)