Greece is not seeking aid to pull its debt-ridden economy out of its worst fiscal crisis in decades, the finance minister said Thursday.

The European Union has been pressing its indebted member state to implement a strict austerity plan and plug its debilitating budget deficit, which stands at more than four times the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP. Greece's debt stood at 113 percent of annual output for 2009, and is expected to reach 120.4 percent of gross domestic product this year.

There have been fears that the country would be unable to deal with the crisis and would seek help from abroad or a bailout — which would be a first for the decade-old eurozone, of which Greece is a member.

But Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou stressed that the country was capable of dealing with the crisis.

"We're not expecting anyone to come to our aid," he said during a conference in Athens. "Greece has neither asked for, nor is it expecting, anything of the sort."

Earlier this week, some EU leaders expressed confidence that Greece would pull itself out of the crisis after Athens submitted a plan to cut public expenditure and tighten its notoriously leaky tax system.

"The EU Commission is expected to give the green light to Greece's Stability Program in early February, although some additional efforts might be required at that stage," Frederik Ducrozet, eurozone analyst at Calyon Capital Markets Research, said in an e-mailed note.

"We strongly believe Greece will not default. Should a default be imminent, (European monetary union) member states would be expected to provide financial assistance via EU institutions," he said.

The Greek problem has undermined the euro and could have a knock-on effect on other weak European economies, particularly Portugal, Spain and Ireland. Greece also now has to borrow from international markets at considerably higher rates than other eurozone members.

It faces an uphill struggle in regaining international credibility after it sharply revised deficit forecasts and the EU found its statistics had been falsified in the past under political pressure. The country has also suffered a string of international credit rating downgrades.

"My sense is that we're building that confidence back," Papaconstantinou said, adding that Greece would be able to satisfy its full borrowing requirements in international markets "in the next weeks and months."