Costa was speaking to journalists at the end of a debate in parliament, after the secretary of state for finance, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, was reported as saying that the governor, Carlos Costa, had shown a "grave" failure to keep the government informed over the Banif case.

"We must learn to work with institutions with normality and the relationship that the government has had with parliament, with the presidents (the previous and the currentone) is a good example of how the normality of institutional relations should be - and also with the Bank of Portugal," he said. "The governor has a five-year term that was conferred on him by the previous government and he cannot be removed except in the legal framework."

Questioned about the fact that the Left Bloc - one of the parties that provides the minority Socialist government's support base in parliament - had demanded that the governor resign, the prime minister responded: "We must work with the governor of the Bank of Portugal and that is what we have done, indeed in a constructive way."

While government and governor are not always in agreement, he added, nor do they have to be, given that the Bank of Portugal is independent.

Meanwhile, officials from various parties are meeting on Friday to approve the requests by the parliamentary committee of inquiry on Banif to hear testimony from the governor and from the minister of finance Mário Centeno.