Irish resistance may crumble to pressure from the powerful euro countries, not least Germany which is keen to calm the markets

Finance ministers of the 16 countries using the euro single currency meet on Tuesday in Brussels amid fevered speculation that Ireland will be forced to extend a begging bowl seeking billions in bailout funds.

Sources in Brussels said senior officials at the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the Eurogroup of governments in the single currency zone had all been in touch with Brian Lenihan, the embattled Irish finance minister, in recent days to discuss the likelihood and terms of a bailout.

There was little sense, however, that final decisions were imminent. Rather the feeling in Brussels over the weekend was that Dublin was resisting pressure to ask for help, not least because the bailout terms would be so punitive – a partial surrender of sovereignty over the national budget as the IMF and ECB experts dictate fiscal policy to the government of Brian Cowen and possibly force increases in Ireland's cherished low corporation tax rates of 12.5%. In Dublin last week, Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, made plain that the low corporation tax rate would be on the agenda if EU officials were granted discreet budgetary powers in Ireland, as happened with Greece.

"It's difficult to imagine Ireland remaining a low-taxation country," Rehn said.

Over the past week, following warnings from Germany that creditors will have to take "haircuts" or foot a large part of the bill in future European sovereign debt crises, investors have placed an exorbitant premium on the costs of Dublin's borrowing, effectively pricing Ireland out of the market. The yield on 10-year Irish bonds soared to 9% last week, nudging levels that forced Greece to turn to the EU and the IMF for salvation this year.

Officials across Dublin and other European capitals were anxiously awaiting the opening of the markets tomorrow morning to gauge whether a bailout was more or less likely. European leaders on Friday sought to reassure the markets, stressing that haircuts would apply only from 2013.

Meanwhile the Irish government emphasised three times over the weekend that it was not asking for help, the latest denial coming from Batt O'Keefe, the minister for enterprise, trade and innovation.

But the Irish resistance may fall victim to strong pressure from the bigger and more powerful euro countries, not least Germany which is keen to calm the markets and avoid a domino effect with investors shifting to target Portugal or Spain, triggering a bigger euro crisis.

Tuesday's meeting is to be followed on Wednesday by EU finance ministers gathering in Brussels.

In May when the Greek debt crisis ballooned into the near collapse of the euro, government leaders and the IMF constructed a €750bn (£637bn) emergency fund to shore up the single currency.

Ireland would be the first country to draw on it, since the €110bn Greek bailout was established separately. The €750bn fund is made up of three elements - €250bn from the IMF, €440bn from eurozone governments in a financial stability mechanism sited in Luxembourg, and a €60bn "community facility" administered by the European Commission.

It is the latter that would be used for Ireland, officials said . "There is no appetite to turn to the €440bn fund," said one.

"There has been no request from the Irish government to activate the community facility," said another official. "Ireland says it is fully funded at least until early next year."

Should Dublin ask for help, eurozone governments would then have to decide in consultation with the European Commission and the ECB whether the Irish crisis was jeopardising the euro as a whole and whether there were no other options, that the bailout was a "last resort."