LONDON Dec 13 (Reuters) – The ECB was buying Italian
government bonds in the secondary market on Tuesday, traders
said.

Ten-year Italian government bond yields were
off their highest levels of the day, last 13 basis points higher
at 6.73 percent.

The traders said the ECB was buying Italian paper with a
maturity of less than 10-years.

One added that the central bank had been buying Portuguese
and Irish paper on Monday for the first time in quite a while,
although there was no sign of this again so far again on
Tuesday.