"The successful debt exchange in December and the fall in public debt yields in the secondary market in the past few weeks are encouraging signs for our full return to market financing. A five-year bond has been announced for the near future," Maria Luis Albuquerque told reporters.

Portugal, which is due to exit its bailout in mid-2014, has mandated banks for a five-year syndicated bond tap as it seeks to capitalise on investor demand for peripheral sovereign issues after Ireland on Monday made its first issue since it exited its own bailout programme last month.

According to sources cited by Reuters' IFR, the Portuguese tap is expected to raise around 2 billion (£1.64 billion) to 2.5 billion euros.

(Reporting By Sergio Goncalves, writing by Andrei Khalip)