LONDON (Dow Jones)--The cost of accessing dollars in the money market fell to its lowest level in more than five months Friday, in a further sign that measures taken by the European Central Bank and other global central banks to alleviate interbank tensions were bearing fruit. The widely watched three-month euro-dollar basis swap was quoted at minus 76 basis points, its strongest level since Aug. 10, having sunk to as low as minus 165.5 basis points in late November, before leading central banks stepped in to slash the cost of dollars through their tenders. "A positive tone in credit markets has helped ease the 3-months higher over the past few days," strategist Christopher Clark of interdealer broker ICAP said, citing this week's series of strong debt auctions by some of the euro-zone's more indebted sovereigns. "We're now heading back through price ranges seen last summer when U.S. money market funds were busy ditching euro borrowers, putting tremendous downward pressure on the basis [swap]," he said. At 1121 GMT, the euro was trading at $1.2898 against the dollar. -By William Kemble-Diaz, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9347; william.kemble-diaz@dowjones.com; @djfxtrader

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