NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - President Bush could soon name two candidates to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board, according to a published report Monday.

Bush may nominate Ben Bernanke, 48, chairman of the economics department at Princeton University, and Donald Kohn, 59, chief secretary and economist at the central bank, to fill the two vacancies on the board that have existed for several months, according to a report in Investors Business Daily.

The Fed and Bernanke referred inquiries about the matter to the White House, which would not comment on the report. Kohn could not be reached for comment.

According to the report, Bernanke wants the Fed, which tries to stimulate U.S. economic growth while keeping inflation in check, to announce and pursue specific targets for inflation, a policy Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan rejects.

The Fed's Board of Governors, which manages the Fed system, consists of seven members but has operated with at least one vacancy for more than two years. The board needs four members for a quorum. With five, at least one member can be traveling or unable to make a meeting without affecting the board's work.

"I would like to see the spots filled as soon as possible," said Robert Macintosh, chief economist and bond fund portfolio manager at Eaton Vance Management.

In July 2001, Bush nominated Mark Olson, former president of the American Bankers Association, to fill one of two slots open at the time. He nominated Tennessee banker and economist Susan Schmidt Bies to fill a spot left by the resignation of Edward W. Kelley Jr. last June.

Both nominations were approved. But Fed Governor Laurence Meyer's term ended in January 2002, and he did not seek reappointment, leaving two board slots open again.

Greenspan was reappointed in 2000 to a fourth four-year term that ends in June 2004, when he will be 78, giving Bush the opportunity to replace him as chairman. Some observers have speculated that Greenspan could retire as early as this year, however. Greenspan's separate term as a board member expires in 2006.

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Members of the Fed Board are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They serve a full term of 14 years.

Fed interest rate cuts spur the economy by lowering short-term borrowing costs, putting more cash in the hands of consumers, who fuel two-thirds of the economy. The Fed cut rates 11 times in 2001 to help set the stage for a recovery from a recession that likely began in March 2001.

The Fed can also raise rates if it's worried about the economy growing too quickly and fueling inflation. But the Fed left rates alone at its first two meetings in 2002. Many economists think it will leave rates alone until August, since inflation isn't perceived as a problem and the strength of the economic recovery is uncertain.