By Eva Kuehnen and Annika Breidthardt

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank signaled its policy course was slowly turning on Thursday, delivering a surprise warning on inflation and calling governments and banks to build on its recent blitz of radical support measures to foster a full crisis recovery.

The ECB kept interest rates at a record of low of 1 percent for a third month running as expected, after completing two monster injections of cheap cash which have flushed over a trillion euros of three-year money into the euro zone.

Despite lowering its euro zone growth forecasts, it strengthened its rhetoric about a euro zone recovery, saying there were signs of a pick up, rather than the phrase "tentative signs" it has used since the start of the year.

The central bank also raised its forecasts for inflation this year, partly because of climbing oil prices.

"At least for the time being, a rate cut is clearly off the table ... they took away the easing bias," said ING economist Carsten Brzeski. "They sounded a bit more positive but staff projections were worse ... at least the chance of the euro zone falling off the cliff is very low right now."

ECB President Mario Draghi left little doubt that unless there was a relapse in the debt crisis, the bank had now done all it planned to in terms of extraordinary measures and that governments and banks needed to take up the baton.

"Both LTROs (3-year loan injections) have had such a powerful effect ... we have to see exactly how the financial landscape has changed as a result," Draghi told the post meeting news conference.

"I think the ball is in the governments' and the other actors' - especially banks - court to continue their reforms, to repair their balance sheets so that they can actually support the - especially banks now - support the recovery."

MIXED FORECASTS

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ECB fires inflation warning, trumpets success of cash flood