By Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it is likely to hike interest rates in March and reaffirmed plans to end its bond purchases that month in what U.S. central bank chief Jerome Powell pledged will be a sustained battle to tame inflation. “The committee is of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting assuming that the conditions are appropriate for doing so,” Powell said in a news conference, pinning down a policy statement from the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee that only said rates would rise “soon.” …