Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates will shortly announce his country's request for financial aid from the European Union, a senior EU source said on Wednesday just before Socrates was to appear on television.

Portugal for months has resisted applying for an EU/IMF bailout, saying it could manage on its own, but its borrowing costs reached unsustainable levels after the collapse of the government last month.

Things have moved quite quickly in the last days, though not automatically, the senior EU source said.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Michael Roddy)

Portugal