LISBON, Portugal - May 5, 2010 - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet on Thursday downplayed market fears that Portugal and Spain could need bailouts after Greece, but failed to announce any new measures to help ease the debt crisis that is engulfing the eurozone.

Trichet put the blame for the crisis, which is raising questions about the euro currency's future, firmly on Europe's governments for tolerating lax budgetary controls for years - and before the financial crisis erupted in late 2007.

However, he insisted that Greece was an outlier.

"Portugal and Greece are not on the same boat, and this is very visible when you look at the facts and figures," he told a press conference after the Bank held its benchmark interest rate at the record low of 1% for the twelfth month running. "Portugal is not Greece. Spain is not Greece."

Trichet said the bank's governing council did not discuss buying government bonds - one anti-crisis measure some economists are calling for - nor the need to create an orderly default mechanism for the eurozone, as urged by others.

"We did not discuss this option," Trichet said. "We did not discuss at all anything like default or such default procedures."