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"There is zero danger," Klaus Regling, chief of the euro's financial safety net, European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), told German daily Bild in an interview published on Thursday when asked if the euro zone could break apart.

"It is inconceivable that the euro fails," he said.

Some economists and commentators, mostly in Britain and the United States, have suggested the 16-nation common currency launched in 1999 could split because of peripheral members' high debts and deficits, and a loss of competitiveness with Germany.

But Regling said: "No country will give up the euro of its own will: for weaker countries that would be economic suicide, likewise for the stronger countries. And politically Europe would only have half the value without the euro."

Greece received a three-year 110-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout in May, leading to the creation of the EFSF, which Ireland has now applied to tap to cope with the devastating impact of a banking crisis on its public finances.

The cost of insuring Irish debt against default continued to rise on Thursday amid market doubts about Dublin's austerity plan. In another sign of waning confidence, European clearing house LCH.Clearnet increased the deposit it requires traders in Irish government bonds to post for the third time this month.

The euro tumbled this week after German Chancellor Angela Merkel alarmed markets by saying the single currency was in an "exceptionally serious" situation.

German Bundesbank chief Axel Weber, a powerful member of the European Central Bank's governing council, said he was convinced EU leaders would do whatever it takes to repel what he called an "opportunistic attack" on the currency area.

Weber noted that the EFSF and other EU rescue funds had enough money, if necessary, to cover the borrowing needs of the four financially troubled members of the euro zone -- Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

"If that is not enough, I am convinced euro zone states will do what is necessary to protect the euro," Weber told French business and political leaders in Paris on Wednesday evening. "But 750 billion (euros) should be more than enough to see off an attack on the euro zone."

Currency and credit markets have been unnerved by German proposals to force bond holders to share the cost of any future default by highly indebted euro zone countries, as well as by the alarmist tone of recent comments by Merkel and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny voiced irritation at Merkel for not "differentiating between the euro as a currency and the problems of individual (euro zone) states."

Euro zone policymakers are hoping that Spain and Portugal can stave off an Irish- or Greek-style debt meltdown.

A Reuters poll this week showed 34 out of 50 analysts surveyed believe Portugal will be forced to follow Ireland and ask for help. In a separate survey only four out of 50 economists thought Spain would seek external aid.