Observations made by the EUV imaging telescope (EIT) and the Large-Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on board the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) have been used to characterize the eruption and acceleration of flare-associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the low corona. For three well-observed limb events we tracked CME loops back to preexisting but faint EUV-emitting loops at heights of 100-250 Mm that initially brightened slowly and possibly increased slowly in height, apparently in response to filament activity and eruption in the associated active regions. Subsequent CME acceleration coincided with a rapid rise of the soft X-ray flux, occurred between 100 and 350 Mm above the surface, and may have been as high as 0.5 km s-1 s-1, consistent with an impulsive acceleration of the CME to the speeds observed in subsequent white-light observations. The existence of a delay of up to 30 min observed between initial filament eruption in H alpha and subsequent high acceleration of the CME in one event implies that there may have been two separate phases of magnetic reconnection, with the initial filament activity acting as a trigger for subsequent CME and energetic particle acceleration in the impulsive stage of the flare. The presence or absence of this impulsive phase may provide a basis for the two types of CMEs that have been discussed in the literature. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union