Sept 18 (Reuters) - Bank of America Merrill Lynch said gold prices could climb as high as $2,400 per ounce by end of 2014 citing aggressive policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank.

The bank expects the Fed will maintain mortgage purchases until the end of 2014 and could move to buy treasuries following the end of its Operation Twist.

"Given the new open-ended nature of QE3 (quantitative easing), the upward pressure on gold prices should continue until employment is strong enough to warrant a change in policy. In our view, this is unlikely to happen until the end of 2014," BofA said in a note to clients.

The bank kept its gold price target of $2,000 an ounce for the second quarter of 2013. (Reporting by Soma Das in Bangalore; Editing by Alison Birrane)