Federal Reserve officials saw "little evidence" late last month that US inflation pressures were easing, and steeled themselves to force the economy to slow down to control an ongoing surge in prices, according to the minutes of their July 26-27 policy meeting. While not explicitly hinting at a particular pace of coming rate increases, beginning with the Sept. 20-21 meeting, the minutes released on Wednesday showed US central bank policymakers committed to raising rates as high as necessary to tame inflation - even as they began to acknowledge more explicitly the risk they might go too far and curb economic activity too much.