However, following a worrying bond issue by Portugal, as well as forthcoming issues by Spain and Italy, the government decided to abandon its plans to hold an auction on 31 January and instead to hand the bond issue over to a consortium of friendly banks - BNP Paribas Fortis, Royal Bank of Scotland, Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking and UBS Investment Bank - for them to pass the bonds on to their institutional clients.

The sale went ahead last week, but raised only €3 billion. The rate of interest was set at 4.25%, slightly down from where it had stood a week before. Meanwhile the so-called spread - the difference between the German interest rate and the Belgian - closed the day at 107 basis points, having peaked at 119 during the day. The week before, it had gone as high as 144 points.

"There could have been a lot more, but you couldn't call it a setback," commented Anne Leclerq, director of the government's Debt Agency. Part of the reason the Agency started the day with €6 billion in orders and closed it with half of that turned into sales, was that the EU finance ministers had been expected to increase their emergency fund, which is intended to help out member states in trouble. "Because that didn't happen, a lot of investors backed off," Leclerq said.