CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) ? Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Sunday Italy is not putting pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue buying Italian government bonds on the market.
Frattini said both Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti had been in close contact with international financial institutions over the market turmoil which has hit the euro zone's third largest economy.
"But the European Central Bank is an independent institution so there are no requests, pressures," on bond buying, he told reporters at the margins of a conference.
On Saturday, Frattini said he was confident the ECB would continue buying Italian bonds.
The ECB began intervening last month to try to hold down yields after market worries over Italy's 1.9 trillion euro debt pile sent borrowing costs soaring to unsustainable levels.
It has since stepped up pressure on the government to meet its pledge to pass measures to balance the budget by 2013. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet warned on Saturday that swift action was essential to restore market confidence.
Underlining the growing concerns, the premium investors demand to hold Italian debt rather than benchmark German bonds rose on Friday to 331 basis points, the highest since the ECB started buying Italian paper in August.
Yields on 10-year Italian bonds ended the week at 5.29 percent, creeping back up toward the 7 percent level generally regarded as unmanageable.
A 45.5-billion-euro package of austerity measures is currently making its way through parliament but internal divisions in Berlusconi's center-right coalition are getting in the way.
Frattini said the plan would be in place shortly and would not require a confidence vote to push it through.
"The Italian government will answer the ECB with deeds, by approving the budget very quickly," Frattini told reporters on Sunday morning.
He said that the Senate would approve the additional package by the end of next week and that approval from the Lower House would follow swiftly.
"I don't see any reason why the government should ask for a confidence vote on the budget," he added.
The government has a 60-day deadline to transform the decree containing the austerity measures into law.
(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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