Portugal's two-year cost of borrowing hit the highest level since it joined the euro in a bond auction today, and the government said yields were unsustainable in the long run without Europe-wide action.
But Treasury Secretary Carlos Pina said the country did not require an international bail-out which the market sees as all but inevitable.
'These are rates that are not sustainable in the longer term, but they are still bearable at the moment, which reinforces the need for measures at the European level,' Pina said.
His comments came just two days before the first of this month's two European summits, where euro zone leaders will take the next cautious steps in their year-long effort to quell the region's debt crisis.
'We are conscious that the rates remain high and have been worsening, implying a need for an urgent European plan of measures to make the (European Financial Stability) fund more flexible,' Pina said. These measures are likely to be discussed in detail at the European Union summit on March 24-25.
He said Portugal was doing what is needed to put its public finances in order and 'does not need external help'.
Portugal's government aims to cut the budget deficit this year to 4.6% from gross domestic product after beating last year's target of 7.3%. The yield on the September 2013 bond soared to 5.993% from 4.086% in an auction last September, also surpassing the 5.396% yield in the sale of a longer-dated October 2014 paper in January.
Portuguese bonds have been under heavy investor pressure on concerns the country will not be able to avoid following Greece and Ireland in requesting an international bailout.
Despite growing investor and peer pressure to request an EU/IMF bailout to ease its debt crisis, Portugal's government has dug in its heels in resisting such a move, saying it can sustain high bond yields for a while.
