Spain's borrowing costs surged at its first auction sincebecoming the fourth euro member to seek a bailout, with theTreasury paying the most for at least eight years to sell debt forone year.

The Treasury sold 2.4 billion euros ($3 billion) of 12- monthbills at an average rate of 5.074 percent, 2.1 percentage pointsmore than the 2.985 percent paid on May 14. It also sold 639.3million euros of 18-month debt at 5.107 percent, compared with3.302 percent last month, the Madrid-based Bank of Spain saidtoday.

The euro area's fourth-largest economy, which is due to sell 2billion euros of bonds on June 21, is urging European authoritiesto act so it doesn't lose access to financial markets. Its bondshave dropped to euro-era lows since requesting as much as 100billion euros of aid to shore up its banks on June 9.