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But Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he was confident that the currency union would survive.
"I think we will be far enough along in the next 12 months that we will have banished the dangers of contagion and stabilised the eurozone."
The euro was at $1.2916, a day after reaching a 15-month low of $1.2858.
The European single currency also fell below 100 yen for the first time in ten years.
Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, has been instrumental in organising bailouts of its neighbours, without which the monetary union might have fallen apart already.
Asked whether he could rule out the 17-nation eurozone breaking up, Mr Schaeuble said: "According to everything that I know at the moment, yes."
"Of course, the European Union cannot force anyone to stay in if they don't want to belong any more," he added. "But no such development can seen at the moment."
The euro has dropped 3.4% against the US dollar this year, and 2.2% versus the British pound.
Debt yields
In recent months, the yields on Italian and Spanish debt has risen as investors have worried about their ability to pay back their debts.
On Thursday, the Italian government sold 10-year bonds at interest rates as high as 6.98% - just a touch below a level considered unsustainable in the long run.
Italy has 161bn euros in debt repayments due between February and April 2012, all of which it will have to finance through new borrowing.
On Friday, the final trading day of 2011, Italian 10-year debt was trading at 6.96% - up from 4.8% at the end of 2010.
By contrast, on Friday Germany's 10-year debt yielded 1.8% and the UK's borrowing cost was about 1.95%.
Bailouts
Last year, the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund bailed out Greece and the Irish Republic, which were struggling to borrow in the financial markets and pay their debts.
This year, it agreed to bail out Portugal - and Greece for a second time.
In September, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague called the euro a "burning building with no exits".
But in November, eurozone leaders agreed a rescue plan that included boosting the size of its bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Fund, to capacity of 1tn euros.
In December, 26 out of 27 EU member states backed a tax and budget pact to tackle the eurozone debt crisis. Only the UK said it would not join.

The crackdown combats phishing by ensuring that the websites of legitimate banks appear at the top of search results.
The move comes as the personal details of more than 45 million Chinese people were stolen in separate attacks.
The government is investigating the thefts and said that the wave of attacks "threatened internet safety".
Crime spree The 10 biggest search engines in China have signed up to the anti-phishing scheme to ensure that users looking for bank websites go to the right place.
Phishing attacks involve messages that look like they come from a bank or other organisation and direct people to a website that mimics the real thing.
When people visit the fake site and enter their login details these are recorded by cyber criminals who may loot the account soon afterwards.
By ensuring that the websites of banks appear first, the government hopes to limit the numbers of people falling for phishing scams and visiting the fake sites.
Some of the search engines will put a special icon next to the bank links in lists of results to flag them as legitimate.
Hacked accounts The anti-phishing initiative comes at the end of a week in which the personal details of almost 10% of China's 485 million web users were stolen.
On Christmas day, the hugely popular Tianya chat site revealed that the login names and passwords from 40 million of its users had been stolen. All risk being plundered by attackers as the information was held in plain text.
Tianya has contacted the affected users and urged them to change their passwords as soon as possible.
Soon after, CDSN, one of China's largest forums for programmers, reported that the details of all its six million users had been stolen. The attackers got away with email addresses, login names and passwords. Again, all the details were stored in plain text.
The scale of the attacks prompted government action and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would investigate who was behind the attacks.
"The department believes the recent leak of user information is a serious infringement of the rights of internet users and threatens internet safety," the Ministry said in a statement.
The Chinese government is known to have put in place technology that monitors online chat rooms for controversial topics but the far-reaching measures have not stopped all nefarious cyber activity.
As well as criminal hackers, many activists are turning to the web to make protests more visible.
The website of Menginu, a firm at the centre of a tainted milk scandal, was vandalised and its homepage image replaced with text that read "Do you have a conscience?".

The court said a panel of four high court judges would conclude its findings within a month.
The "memogate" scandal concerns a note allegedly sent from Pakistan's political leadership to US Adm Mike Mullen, via a former ambassador.
President Asif Ali Zardari's aides deny any links with the document.
Pakistan's civilian leaders were allegedly worried that the army was about to launch a coup after US forces killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in May.
They say any court inquiry into the affair would be unnecessary and politically motivated. The government argues that a parliamentary committee is already looking into memogate.
Correspondents say Friday's ruling will put additional pressure on the government and could even lead to President Zardari's fall from power if a link is established.
"I think that this is one of the darkest days in history for the judiciary," said a lawyer for Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani - who denies any role in the affair.
"I said in the Supreme Court too that this is a very disappointing judgement. This is a judgement that places national security above fundamental rights," lawyer Asma Jahangir said.
Earlier this week President Zardari accused Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry of failing to investigate the murder of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
He was addressing party supporters on the anniversary of Ms Bhutto's killing.
He pointed to a hearing the Supreme Court opened over the leaked memo as proof the court has been inconsistent.

In a BBC interview, Nigerian army spokesman Brig Gen Isa blamed the Islamist group Boko Haram.
The group - which wants strict sharia law - has carried out scores of attacks, mainly in the north-east.
It is accused of targeting a number of churches on Christmas Day, killing at least 42 people.
Boko Haram has also in the past targeted international organisations and Muslim leaders from rival sects.
"There was a loud blast near the mosque just after the Friday prayers as people were trooping out of the mosque," one Maiduguri resident was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
"Everybody scampered to safety, leading to a stampede."
Another witness said he had seen four bodies.
Thousands of people have fled their homes in Maiduguri and other cities which have been attacked by Boko Haram.
Earlier this week, Nigeria's main Christian group warned that the country's Christian may have to defend themselves if the security forces could not protect them.
Analysts said the move raised the spectre of communal clashes in Africa's most populous nation, which is divided between a largely Muslim north and a mainly Christian and animist south.

Tens of thousands of people from the rival Murle group fled the town on Friday morning, fearing violence.
Inter-ethnic clashes in Jonglei state, initially triggered by cattle raids, have cost the lives of around 1,000 people in recent months.
The UN already has a battalion of troops in Pibor.
Most victims of the clashes have been women and children. Both communities have abducted children during the violence.
Correspondents say these attacks are one of the biggest challenges to the stability of South Sudan, the world's newest country, which only became an independent nation in July.
It is one of the world's poorest regions, inhabited by around 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs.
About 6,000 armed men from the Lou Nuer community are marching through Jonglei state burning homes and seizing cattle along the way, says BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross.
The United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator in South Sudan, Lise Grande, told the BBC that the UN was reinforcing its troops in Pibor to assist the South Sudanese army in defending civilians.
"We are very concerned by the scale of this," she said.
"The UN is facing enormous logistical challenges - we still have no military aircraft, only civilian helicopters," she added.
South Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar has been shuttling between the rival communities in a push for peace. On Thursday night it seemed he had persuaded the Lou Nuer not to attack Pibor - but they then left in their thousands overnight heading towards that town.
Cattle plays a central role in the life of many South Sudanese communities - in the absence of banks, they are used to store wealth and to pay bride prices.
The violence between the two communities has been going on for years, but with modern weapons its scale is increasing.
Our correspondent says the clashes may have begun as cattle raids, but they have spiralled out of control into retaliatory attacks.

Sergei Shoigu said radiation monitoring would also now go back to normal after being stepped up when the blaze started on wood decking near the Yekaterinburg.
Officials said there was no risk as its two reactors had been shut down. Nine people were hurt fighting the fire.
President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation into the incident.
One of his deputy prime ministers has promised that the Yekaterinburg, a Delta-IV-class nuclear submarine, will be repaired within several months.
"According to preliminary information, the damage caused by the fire will not affect the ship's combat characteristics," Dmitriy Rogozin said.
'No radiation threat' The Yekaterinburg had been inside a dry dock at the Roslyakovo shipyard - on the Barents Sea coast, 1,500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow - on Thursday when wooden scaffolding around it caught fire.
The blaze soon spread to the submarine's rubber-coated outer hull.
Television pictures showed thick smoke billowing from the top of the vessel as 11 fire crews doused the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats. The submarine was later partially submerged in an effort to extinguish the blaze.
The fire was contained at 01:40 on Friday (21:40 GMT on Thursday), according to the emergency situations ministry, but by the morning, the submarine was still smouldering, and firefighters were still working at the scene, pouring water over the outer hull as well as the space between it and the inner hull, reports said.
A law enforcement source told Russian news agencies that seven servicemen at the shipyard and two emergency ministry personnel had suffered from smoke inhalation.
On Friday afternoon, Mr Shoigu told a meeting of officials the fire had been "put out completely", and that there was "no open burning".
He said that the cooling of the submarine's hull would continue.
Earlier, officials insisted the submarine's two nuclear reactors had already been shut down and that radiation levels on board and in the area were normal.
"These parameters are within the limits of natural radiation fluctuation levels. There is no threat to the population," the emergency ministry said.
The vessel's 16 inter-continental ballistic missiles, each with four warheads, had also been removed when the repair work began, officials said.
Some of the crew remained on board the submarine during the fire to monitor temperatures and carbon dioxide levels, they added.
The Russian Navy's Commander-in-Chief, Adm Vladimir Vysotskiy, and Chief of the Navy Staff Adm Aleksandr Tatarinov are at Roslyakovo to oversee the operation.
Safety on Russian navy submarines is a sensitive issue for the military following the Kursk disaster in August 2000.
The Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea off north-west Russia, killing all 118 seamen on board. Investigators concluded that an explosion of fuel from one of its torpedoes caused the sinking.

As the clock struck midnight (10:00 GMT Friday) as 29 December ended, Samoa and Tokelau fast-forwarded to 31 December, missing out on 30 December entirely.
Samoa announced the decision in May in a bid to improve ties with major trade partners Australia and New Zealand.
Neighbouring Tokelau decided to follow suit in October.
The change comes 119 years after Samoa moved in the opposite direction. Then, it transferred to the same side of the international date line as the United States, in an effort to aid trade.
But New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly valuable trade partners for the country.
Speaking from Samoa shortly after the change, at midnight local time, journalist Rico Tupai said the town was alive.
"You can hear the sound of a lot of vehicles going round town, going round the town centre clock and tooting their horns. People screaming," he said.
"We have once again achieved another milestone in our history of Samoa."
Samoan Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi said he expected to see immediate benefits from the change, particularly for the tourist industry, as Samoans would now have five working days of continuous contact with counterparts in New Zealand and Australia.
"While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand, and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane," the prime minister said in the countdown to the switch.
Mr Malielegaoi later said he had just attended a ceremony to signal the change in time zone which was followed by morning tea and coffee for the people who had attended to "applaud the occasion".
He added that the change would have particular benefits for Samoans needing to travel to New Zealand to attend to family business.
Samoa is located approximately halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and has a population of 180,000 people. Around 131,000 people living in New Zealand are of Samoan descent, according to New Zealand's 2006 census.
Local time up to 29 December had been 23 hours behind Auckland - but now it is one hour ahead.
Tokelau is a tiny New Zealand-administered territory of three islands. It lies to the north of Fiji, approximately half-way between Hawaii and the Australian coast.

The announcement is the first in a wave of austerity measures, with a total of 16.5bn euros to be cut in 2012.
It also said Spain's 2011 deficit will be about 8% of its output - higher than the 6% seen by the previous government.
The Popular Party last month ousted the Socialists from power at elections amid deep economic gloom.
The government of new Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to meet Spain's target of reducing the public deficit to 4.4% of gross domestic product in 2012, no matter what.
On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria maintained a freeze on public sector wages for another year and ruled out practically all government hiring.
"This is the beginning of the beginning," Ms Saenz de Santamaria said.
"We are facing an extraordinary, unexpected situation, which will force us to take extraordinary and unexpected measures."
Taxes on the wealthiest Spaniards will also be raised for at least two years, raising 6bn euros, she said.
Spain's borrowing costs have jumped in the last year - reaching as high as 6.7% for 10-year debts - as investors feared that Spain might join Greece, the Irish Republic and Portugal in needing a bailout.
The country's economy has shrunk sharply since a housing bubble burst in 2008, and it has an unemployment rate of 21%, the highest in Europe.
The austerity measures have sparked a number of large protests across the country.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday's attack near a Kurdish village, in which young smugglers died, was "unfortunate and saddening".
President Abdullah Gul also expressed condolences and spoke of Turkey's "pain" over the incident.
Turkey's military said earlier it had targeted suspected Kurdish militants. An official investigation is under way.
A Kurdish rebel commander, Bahoz Erdal of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), called on Kurds to "react after this massacre and hold the perpetrators to account through their uprising".
The attack by F-16 jets on Wednesday night took place near the town of Uludere, in Sirnak province in south-eastern Turkey.
Mr Erdogan said it had been established after the raid that the victims were smugglers, not rebels.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party condemned the air strike as a "massacre", saying that all the victims were civilians aged between 16 and 20.
The victims were buried at a cemetery in Gulyazi village.
Mourners accompanied the coffins in a long convoy from nearby Uludere, some shouting "Erdogan is a murderer!" and flashing V for victory signs, AFP news agency reported.
Condolences from military On Friday the website of the Turkish General Staff carried a message of condolence for the families of the 35 victims - a gesture described by correspondents as highly unusual.
Earlier, the general staff had said the area attacked was inside northern Iraq and had no civilian population. It added that the raid was launched following information that suspected militants were planning to attack Turkish security bases.
Fighting has escalated between Turkish forces and PKK rebels in recent months.
Since 1984 the PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the US, has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state, in which more than 40,000 people have died.
In October Turkey launched a major air and land offensive against the rebels near the Iraqi border after 24 of its troops were killed in a night ambush by rebels.
Supporters of the main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) demonstrated on Thursday over the botched air strike, and some clashed with Turkish police.
There were also violent protests in the mainly Kurdish towns of Diyarbakir and Sirnak.
Kurds demand answers "They openly massacred us. Why was this blood spilled? They must answer this question," said Kitan Encu, who lost 11 family members in the raid.
Quoted by AFP, she said all the victims were "burned completely" and "the oldest one was 20 years old, they were all students".
Mr Erdogan said "images transmitted by drones showed a group of 40 people in the area, it was impossible to say who they were".
"Afterwards it was determined they were smugglers transporting cigarettes and fuel on mules."
Lashing out at some Turkish press coverage of the blunder he said "no state deliberately bombs its own people".

The message came in a statement carried by state media and attributed to the powerful National Defence Commission.
"We declare solemnly and confidently that the foolish politicians around the world, including the puppet group in South Korea, should not expect any change from us," it said.
Kim Jong-il died on 17 December of a heart attack, state media said.
He had ruled North Korea since the death of his father Kim Il-sung in 1994. Under him funds were channelled to the military and North Korea conducted two nuclear tests.
His son, Kim Jong-un, has been named "supreme leader of the party, state and army".
'Unforgivable' North Korea's neighbours are watching to see whether the leadership change will affect Pyongyang's ties with the international community.
The impoverished communist state remains technically at war with South Korea and is isolated on the international stage because of its dire human rights record and pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Six-nation talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions - involving the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan - have been stalled for months.
The statement from the NDC - which is thought to be the country's top decision-making body - said North Korea would "never deal" with South Korean leader Lee Myung-bak.
Mr Lee has angered Pyongyang by linking the provision of aid to progress on denuclearisation.
The NDC also criticised Seoul's "unforgivable" decision to allow only two non-official delegations to cross the border to pay their respects to Mr Kim.
Diplomatic flurry Amid regional concern, the US is to send one of its top diplomats to East Asia to discuss the situation in North Korea.
Kurt Campbell will hold talks in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo from 3-7 January, the State Department said.
Mr Campbell, who is the Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will be the most senior US official to visit the region since Kim Jong-il died.
The US and South Korean defence chiefs, meanwhile, spoke for 20 minutes about issues on the Korean peninsula on Thursday.
The two "shared the view that peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is our overarching priority and agreed to maintain close co-operation and co-ordination in the weeks and months ahead", the Pentagon said in a statement.
On Thursday North Korea held a national memorial service for Kim Jong-il, ending the period of mourning.
Hundreds of thousands of North Korean troops and citizens lined up for the ceremony in Pyongyang's main square.
Top party and military officials hailed Kim Jong-un, the young and politically inexperienced new leader, in front of the huge crowd.

When Hungary scrapped an auction in 2008 it was forced to seek IMF help.
The country, which is not part of the eurozone, is already in talks with the European Commission (EC) and IMF over a refinancing package.
However negotiators from the EC and IMF left Hungary earlier in December due to worries over the independence of its central bank.
The government sold 15bn forints ($62m, £40.5m) of debt in the auction, compared with a target of 18bn forints.
The average interest rate on its 10-year bonds increased from 8.78% to 9.7%.
The country's debt agency, AKK, said it had cancelled the three-year auction because the range of yields offered was too wide.
However it said there was not a shortage of lenders, as had happened in 2008.
"The 16 billion (in bids) is not too much but is an acceptable amount relative to the 15 billion on offer, but yields came in such a wide range that the AKK decided to reject all bids," said deputy chief executive of the AKK Laszlo Andras Borbely.
Downgrade The unsuccessful auction follows a downgrade of Hungary's debt to junk status by Standard & Poor's (S&P) last week.
S&P cited changes to the constitution that had undermined the independence of the central bank and other institutions as part of the reason for the downgrade.
"In our view, the predictability of Hungary's policy framework continues to weaken, harming Hungary's medium-term growth prospects," the agency said after the downgrade.
S&P also cited heightened risks to the country's ability to repay its debts due to the weakening domestic and global economic outlook.
Economists say Hungary can continue to fund its spending from the markets in the short term but may eventually need IMF assistance again.
The head of the IMF mission to Hungary, Christoph Rosenberg said on Wednesday that no decision had been made on when and if formal negotiations over a new standby facility would begin.

Ni Yulan and her husband, Dong Jiqin, have pleaded not guilty.
Mrs Ni, who is in poor health, had to use a respirator during the hearing, according to her lawyer.
Their supporters say the trial is a sign of China's growing intolerance of dissent.
Ni Yulan's fight against land grabs began in 2002 after her home in central Beijing was requisitioned and later demolished.
She has been banned from working as a lawyer and already imprisoned twice. She and her husband have continued to advise others whose land has been seized.
Scores detained Fifty-one-year-old Mrs Ni uses a wheelchair - a consequence, she and her supporters say, of mistreatment by police.
The couple were detained earlier this year as authorities rounded up scores of activists to deter a popular uprising like those taking place in the Arab world.
Their daughter, Dong Xuan, said seeing her mother lying on a bed in court "made her heart ache".
The trial had been "a very abnormal legal process" and she believed that there was "a very big chance she will be found guilty", said Ms Dong, according to AFP.
The trial was closed to the press and foreign diplomats. The couple's lawyer Cheng Hai said outside the court that no verdict had been reached, and it was unclear when one would be announced.
This week two other Chinese dissidents, Chen Xi and Chen Wei, were both sentenced for subversion, receiving ten-year and nine-year sentences respectively.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas, who is in Beijing, says that the Chinese Communist Party is due to undergo a change in its senior leaders next year and is thought to be extremely sensitive about any challenges to its rule.
As development has accelerated, land values have gone up in China - and many local governments have been seizing property, our correspondent says.
He says there are numerous disputes between Communist officials and ordinary people, who complain that compensation is low and profits from the land often go to Party members or corrupt businessmen.

Thursday's explosion destroyed a police truck as it drove through a village in Nad Ali district, officers said.
The police were leaving a training centre when their vehicle was hit. The Taliban have said they carried out the attack.
Separately, France says an Afghan soldier has shot dead two French foreign legion members in the east.
'Recruits were victims' The police officers killed by the bomb were leaving a training centre when their vehicle was hit.
Some of those killed were reported to be new recruits. One other policeman was injured by the blast.
Last month President Hamid Karzai said that Nad Ali - which has seen heavy fighting between insurgents and British forces - was being handed over to Afghan control.
Correspondents say that the dead policemen were members of the US-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) force set up last year to play a key role in providing security as Nato forces begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.
The ALP provides arms to local people to protect their communities in areas where the Afghan army and regular police have limited reach.
Critics describe it as little more than a militia, but Nato says that it helps to bolster security in rural areas.
British forces have been operating in Nad Ali since 2006. They recently said that the joint security effort had led to an 86% drop in violence this year compared to 2010.
The two French servicemen - both non-commissioned officers - were killed as they took part in a support mission with the Afghan army in the Tagab valley.
The shooting is the latest in a series of attacks by members of the Afghan security forces against their coalition partners, raising fears of increased Taliban infiltration.
There is no information on what happened to the attacker.

Both suspect the threats have emanated from Pakistan's powerful security establishment and its premier intelligence service, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).
The ISI was widely accused of killing a local journalist, Saleem Shehzad, in May 2011.
It vehemently denied the charge.
Journalists' organisations say at least 29 journalists have been killed in Pakistan during the last five years, many of them specifically for their work.
Messages A senior journalist, Najam Sethi, disclosed at a television talk show on Wednesday night that he had received "serious" threats from "both non-state and state actors".
He said if these threats did not cease, he would be "compelled to take names of the organisations and officials" who were behind them.
Without naming any intelligence service, he said its operatives were "in touch with and threatening several other senior journalists".
"This is not the age when the intelligence operatives should be threatening their own civilians. A state within the state is not acceptable," he said.
Mr Sethi is the main analyst at a late night news show on Pakistan's Geo TV in which he has been offering comments critical of the military's role.
His disclosure comes a week after another senior journalist, Hamid Mir, sent out an email to journalists' bodies around the world claiming that he had been receiving threatening messages from what he called "the security establishment".
Mr Mir is the host of Geo TV's popular talk show, Capital Talk.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released the text of Mr Mir's email last week, which contains the text of an SMS message he had received.
According to Mr Mir, the SMS read, "I have not seen a real bastard than you. I wish somebody comes and strips you naked. I hope some army man has not done real dirty with your dear ones."
Mr Mir wrote in his email that these threats have emerged following two talk shows he did which contained critical comments about the military.
"I am sure that the security establishment of Pakistan is once again angry with all those who raise questions about the political role of the army," he wrote.
He added: "If anything bad happens to me or my dear ones, the security establishment will be responsible."
A commission constituted to investigate the May 2011 killing of journalist Saleem Shehzad is investigating the role of the ISI, among others, as a possible suspect in the case.
Journalists working on security-related issues say they have always been threatened and intimidated by the intelligence agencies and have often been forced to under-report "sensitive" issues.
But in recent months, they have increasingly spoken out in public on the issue.

A court in Palma, Majorca, has summoned the Duke of Palma, Inaki Urdangarin, to appear on 6 February.
The duke, married to Princess Cristina, is being investigated over claims he misused public funds given to a foundation he ran.
The former Olympic handball player has denied any wrongdoing.
In the wake of the accusations, the Spanish royal family on Wednesday made its accounts publicly available.
'Regrets' Exact details of the accusations against the duke have not been made public.
However, Spanish media have said he is accused of misdirecting part of some 6m euros (£5m: $8m) sent to his not-for-profit Noos Institute by regional governments to organise sporting events.
It is alleged that some of the money ended up in companies that he ran. The events in question happened in 2004 to 2006 and the duke stepped down as head of the institute in 2006.
While denying any wrongdoing, the 43-year-old duke has said he regrets the "damage" caused.
Earlier this month, a spokesman for the duke said he had agreed with the palace not to take part in official duties while investigations continued.
The Spanish royal family responded to the allegations against the duke by announcing it would make available a full breakdown of its annual budget.
The palace said that the release of royal budget figures on Wednesday was in the spirit of transparency and modern times.

The group said elephants have had a "horrible year", with 23 tonnes of ivory seized - representing at least 2,500 dead animals.
Trade in ivory was banned in 1989 to save elephants from extinction.
But it has continued illegally because of huge demand in Asia, where it is used to make decorative objects.
"The escalating large ivory quantities involved in 2011 reflect both a rising demand in Asia and the increasing sophistication of the criminal gangs behind the trafficking," said a statement from Traffic, which monitors the trade in wildlife products.
"Most illegal shipments of African elephant ivory end up in either China or Thailand."
Shifting smuggling routes The group said there had been at least 13 large seizures of ivory this year, amounting to more than 23 tonnes, compared to six last year of less than 10 tonnes.
Traffic said the smugglers appear to have shifted away from using air to sea - in early 2011, three of the large scale ivory seizures were at airports but later in the year most were found in sea freight.
"The only common denominator in the trafficking is that the ivory departs Africa and arrives in Asia, but the routes are constantly changing, presumably reflecting where the smugglers gamble on being their best chance of eluding detection," it said.
In six of the large 2011 seizures, Malaysia was a transit country in the supply chain, Traffic said.
In the most recent case on 21 December, Malaysian authorities seized hundreds of African elephant tusks worth about $1.3 million (£844,000) that were being shipped to Cambodia.
The ivory was hidden in containers of handicrafts from Kenya's Mombasa port, Traffic said.
Mr Milliken said despite the seizures, there were generally few arrests.
"I fear the criminals are winning," he said.
Some environmental campaigners say the decision to allow some southern African countries, whose elephants populations are booming, to sell their stockpiles of ivory has fuelled the illegal trade.
Those countries - South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe - however, deny this and argue they should be rewarded for looking after their elephant populations.

The hairy tech fans have been playing with the tablets since they were first introduced to them in May.
Conservationist Richard Zimmerman said the next step would be to provide wi-fi access - meaning the apes could watch orangutans in other zoos.
He hopes the experiment will raise awareness and funds to support the wild animals facing extinction.
Mr Zimmerman, from the charity US-based charity Orangutan Outreach, said he had wanted to give the device to the animals ever since it was launched back in January 2010.
"The original idea came literally when Steve Jobs gave his opening presentation introducing the iPad," he said.
"Independently, one of our supporters in Milwaukee was at the zoo showing the orangutan his iPad, and they were fascinated by it. We started to put things together."
Basic curiosity They began introducing simple apps, such as drawing game Doodle Buddy, to orangutans at Milwaukee County Zoo.
Mr Zimmerman said the idea was to provide a "bit of fun" for the animals, who only get to use the devices for two short periods every week.
"What we really want to do is to allow the orangutans to really play - to do paintings, to watch videos, to do almost as a human child would do with basic curiosity."
The animals have, Mr Zimmerman said, been captivated by watching television on the devices, particularly when it featured other orangutans, and even more so when they saw faces they recognised.
"They love moving images. They love bright things. They like to be entertained!
"They love new things, so one of the first things we're going to do to incorporate that is make sure the facilities have wi-fi capabilities so that the orangutans can actually have access to unlimited information - of course with the keepers guiding them."
Attenborough fan He said the most exciting aspect of all was watching how the animals reacted to seeing themselves, and other apes on screen.
"Orangutans love looking at each other," said Mr Zimmerman, adding that one of the apes, 31-year-old MJ, is a fan of David Attenborough programmes.
"The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves - so there is a little vanity going on - and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure.
"So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other."
Other centres, zoos and sanctuaries are said to want to get involved "immediately" and are just waiting for more devices to become available.
"We've been limited to Milwaukee because we haven't been able to get enough iPads," Mr Zimmerman said.
"We've been waiting for the iPad 3 to come out to make the iPad 1 really obsolete, so we can pick up a few.
"We could just go out and buy them, obviously, but one of the things we've trying to really adhere to is making sure that our funds actually go out to the orangutans in need."
'15 seconds' Mr Zimmerman said another problem he faced was protecting the machines, as he did not dare let the animals run off with them into their enclosures.
"As soon as we hand them over to the orangutans, we figure the lifespan could be as little as 15 seconds - whether they meticulously take them apart or just snap them in half."
Currently, zoo keepers have to hold the tablet computers while the animals reach through the enclosure bars and interact with simple gestures.
They are looking into building a re-enforced iPad suitable for being thrown around, or perhaps fixing the device to a wall so it could in turn be hooked to a large projector viewable by zoo visitors.
In addition to this, Mr Zimmerman said there were developers keen to put together apps for the orangutans using design techniques similar to those adopted in software aimed at young children.
Although the animals are being extensively observed by zoo keepers, so far no formal behavioural research is taking place - something that is likely to change in the near future.
"Research is going to come out of it, we know that, but as a charity geared towards conservation we're focusing on enrichment and making sure there's a conservation message attached," Mr Zimmerman said.
Orangutans are among the most at-risk species in the world.
Mr Zimmerman said extensive research into gorillas and touch-screens had been taking place at Zoo Atlanta for several years.
He stressed that none of the money that had been donated by the public to Orangutan Outreach has been spent on tablet computers - and that while it was a fun diversion for zoo visitors, the gadgets should not deflect from the serious threats facing the animals.
"It becomes a way of generating income for the charity. There's really no limit to what can be done," he said.
A spokeswoman for Milwaukee County Zoo told the BBC that the tablets were helping keep the animals in good shape.
"All of this is done as a form of enrichment, to exercise their minds, and keep them active and emotionally healthy," Jennifer Diliberti said.
"The work being done now with the iPads is simply a first step, and it's quite exciting."

He added that despite the two recent successful Italian bond auctions, he did not think that the phase of financial turbulence had finished.
On Thursday the government raised about 7bn euros ($8.96bn; £5.86bn) of debt.
Interest rates on Italian 10-year bonds remained high at 6.98%, a barely sustainable level.
Mr Monti, speaking at the prime minister's traditional end-of-year press conference, stressed that problems for Italy on the markets were linked to wider difficulties on the European level which required a "united, joint and convincing response" that could also boost growth.
He said his new government was working intensively on preparing a package of measures to get the Italian economy moving again. He will present details of his economic plan to EU leaders on 23 January.
The plan would focus on boosting competition and liberalising the Italian jobs market, Mr Monti said.
'Vultures circling' He said Italy had been sliding towards a debt crisis like the one seen in Greece, but had "dug in its heels" at the precipice and did not fall.
"We're not very close to Greece's situation," he said. "We were heading south-east [toward Greece] and we put on the brakes."
He added that until the government took action, "there were many vultures circling in the skies of the European and international markets".
Italy is the eurozone's third largest economy, but investors worry about its mix of low growth, high debt and spiralling borrowing costs.
It is feared the country might need a bailout like fellow eurozone members Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Although yields on Italian bonds fell from recent record highs at Thursday's debt auction, the country's cost of borrowing remains relatively expensive.
"The bond auction went okay, given what is going on in the eurozone, but almost 7% for 10-year paper is very high," said Manoj Ladwa, a trader with ETX Capital.
When Mr Monti replaced Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister last month, short-term fears of an economic collapse receded, but investors are now waiting for the details of Mr Monti's proposals to try to improve the Italian economy.

Turkey's military said earlier it had targeted suspected Kurdish militants.
But the victims of Wednesday night's attack are believed to have been villagers involved in smuggling cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq.
Governing party vice-president Huseyin Celik said an investigation was looking into possible intelligence failures.
The attack, on Wednesday night, took place near the village of Uludere in Sirnak province in south-eastern Turkey.
In a statement, Turkey's general staff said the area attacked on Wednesday night was inside northern Iraq and had no civilian population. It added that the raid was launched following information that suspected militants were planning to attack Turkish security bases.
But Mr Celik was quoted by AFP news agency as saying later that "if it turns out to have been a mistake, a blunder, rest assured that this will not be covered up".
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party condemned the air strike as a "massacre", saying that all the victims were civilians aged between 16 and 20.
"Those killed were young people who made a living from smuggling. There were people studying for university exams among them," said party leader Selahattin Demirtas.
Mr Celik added that some of the victims were sons of village guards who had helped Turkish troops in their fight against the rebels.
The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) urged the military to exercise greater care. While smuggling was against the law, "being killed in an aerial bombardment was not what they deserved", a leading CHP official told the Hurriyet website.
Diesel explosions Provincial governor Vahdettin Ozkan said initially that more than 20 people had lost their lives but his office later clarified that 35 had been killed and one injured.
"A crisis centre is being formed at the scene and prosecutors and security officers were sent there," he told Anatolia news agency.
The mayor of Uludere was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that all the victims had suffered from burns.
Local officials said drums of diesel carried by the group had exploded.
Those killed had been using mules to cross the border when the incident happened, they said.
"We were on our way back when the jets began to bomb us," a survivor, Servet Encu, told the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.
Pictures from the scene showed bodies on a hillside covered in blankets.
Smuggling of fuel and cigarettes is said to be commonplace between villages along the Iraqi border. But rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have crossed the border into Turkey to stage attacks on Turkish forces.
After 24 Turkish soldiers were killed in PKK raids in October, Turkish forces responded with a series of air and ground attacks.

Mr Kim took centre stage at a memorial service in Pyongyang's main square a day after his father's funeral.
Kim Yong-nam, formally the number two leader, told a million-strong crowd their sorrow would be turned into strength "1,000 times greater under the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un".
State TV showed Kim Jong-un surrounded by top government and army officials.
The memorial event appeared to be the Kim dynasty's unofficial handover of power, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in neighbouring South Korea.
A three-minute silence was also held, after which trains and ships throughout the country sounded their horns.
Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on 17 December, aged 69, state media said. He had ruled North Korea since the death of his father Kim Il-sung in 1994.
'Military first' "Respected Comrade Kim Jong-un is our party, military and country's supreme leader who inherits great comrade Kim Jong-il's ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage," Kim Yong-nam told the massive crowd gathered in Kim Il-sung square.
"The fact that he completely resolved the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong-il's most noble achievement."
A top military official, Kim Jong-gak, also addressed the crowd.
"Our people's military will serve comrade Kim Jong-un at the head of our revolutionary troops and will continue to maintain and complete the Songun accomplishments of great leader Kim Jong-il," he said.
Songun refers to the "military-first" policy - channelling funds into the military.
Half-mast On Wednesday, thousands stood weeping and wailing in the snow as Kim Jong-il's funeral cortege passed, images from state television showed.
Kim Jong-un - Mr Kim's third son - cried as he walked alongside the hearse. Tens of thousands of soldiers lined up to bow their heads in homage in the city's main square.
Kim Jong-un - who is thought to be in his late 20s and who has little political experience - was accompanied by his uncle, Chang Song-taek.
Mr Chang is expected to be a key player as the younger Kim consolidates power.
Kim Jong-il - known in North Korea as the "Dear Leader" - was in the process of formalising Kim Jong-un as his successor when he died.
However, the transition was not complete, leaving regional neighbours fearful of a power struggle in the nuclear-armed pariah state.
Mr Kim's two older sons, Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-chol, were not seen at the funeral.
No foreign delegations have attended any of the events. However, UN offices around the world lowered their flags to half-mast.
A spokesman at the UN headquarters in New York said that the move had been requested by Pyongyang's UN mission but was part of normal protocol for the funeral of any head of state.

The move will allow Japan to jointly develop arms with other countries and supply military equipment for humanitarian missions, the spokesman said.
It is expected to help bring military costs down at a time of growing concern about the massive public debt.
It is the first comprehensive revision to the ban since it was enacted.
Japan is concerned about the growing military might of China - and the threat from North Korea - and hopes the move will strengthen the domestic arms industry.
Close watch "The new standards (on weapons exports) are a result of the government considering measures that required attention amid recent changes to the environment surrounding international defence equipment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.
The revised rules will continue to ban sales to communist nations, those subject to UN trade embargoes and those involved in international conflicts, the government said.
Mr Fujimura said Japan would still keep a close watch on exports to avoid fanning conflicts.
The ban is a legacy of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution. The restrictions on weapons sales date from the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, when Japan banned exports to communist countries and those engaged in international conflicts.
The ban was extended to most other countries in the following decade.
Exemptions have been granted in the past to allow technology sharing with the US, with which Japan has a security alliance.
Joint development with other nations is seen as a way to bring defence spending costs down. The move could also open up new markets for Japan's big defence contractors.

The move will allow Japan to jointly develop arms with other countries and supply military equipment for humanitarian missions, the spokesman said.
It is expected to help bring military costs down at a time of growing concern about the massive public debt.
It is the first comprehensive revision to the ban since it was enacted.
Japan is concerned about the growing military might of China - and the threat from North Korea - and hopes the move will strengthen the domestic arms industry.
Close watch "The new standards (on weapons exports) are a result of the government considering measures that required attention amid recent changes to the environment surrounding international defence equipment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.
The revised rules will continue to ban sales to communist nations, those subject to UN trade embargoes and those involved in international conflicts, the government said.
Mr Fujimura said Japan would still keep a close watch on exports to avoid fanning conflicts.
The ban is a legacy of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution. The restrictions on weapons sales date from the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, when Japan banned exports to communist countries and those engaged in international conflicts.
The ban was extended to most other countries in the following decade.
Exemptions have been granted in the past to allow technology sharing with the US, with which Japan has a security alliance.
Joint development with other nations is seen as a way to bring defence spending costs down. The move could also open up new markets for Japan's big defence contractors.

Officials say more bodies had been found in the waters south of the island of Mindanao.
It is not clear how many people are still missing but officials say the search for bodies will continue.
Typhoon Washi struck from 16 to 18 December, devastating the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
Many of those who died were sleeping as Typhoon Washi caused rivers to burst their banks, leading to landslides. Entire villages were washed away.
Civil defence chief Benito Ramos said that an earlier higher death toll provided by the health department had been revised downwards and that the current toll was now based on an actual count of both identified and unidentified recovered bodies.
Appeal for funds
Regional disaster council chief Ana Caneda told AFP news agency that they expected to find more bodies.
"There are still a lot of areas we have examined that are stinking of dead bodies," she told the agency. "We don't know how many people are buried under that mud."
The national disaster agency said it could take up to six months to build temporary housing for the 60,000 who are now homeless in the wake of the storm.
Many of them are currently taking temporary shelter in school buildings.
The chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, Richard Gordon, told the BBC that providing long-term housing was a challenge.
"Right now, what they (flood victims) are in need of is transitional housing," he said, adding that they would have to move out of school buildings and into tent cities by 3 January when classes start.
"The problem is land. We need to have safe land, land that will not be threatened by any earthquake or any floods or any landslides," said Mr Gordon.
Aid agencies have appealed for funds to help those who are affected. The United Nations is seeking $28.6m (£18.2m) from donors to help provide water and sanitation to storm victims.

Shimon Peres was speaking as activists gathered to protest in the town of Beit Shemesh against the way some ultra-Orthodox Jews treat women.
There have been two days of clashes in the town after a girl said she had been harassed on her way to school.
Some ultra-Orthodox in Beit Shemesh are seeking to segregate men and women.
Mr Peres said today was a "test for the nation", not just the police.
"The entire nation must be recruited in order to save the majority from the hands of a small minority," Mr Peres said.
He said the demonstration was a defence of the "character" of the state of Israel "against a minority which breaks our national solidarity".
'Afraid to go to school'
Anger spilled over after an eight-year-old American girl, Naama Margolese, said she was afraid to walk to school in the town because ultra-Orthodox men shouted at her.
"When I walk to school in the morning, I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting," she said in a subsequent interview with The Associated Press on Monday.
In his statement, Mr Peres said: "No person has the right to threaten a girl, a woman or any person in any way. They are not the lords of this land."
Dozens, many holding placards, have gathered outside the Orot girls' school, attended by the eight-year-old.
Women have reported similar incidents in the town of 100,000, some 18 miles (30km) south-west of Jerusalem.
Sarit Ramon described the situation in the town, where religiously observant immigrants live alongside Israelis embracing a more modern lifestyle, as having been "catastrophic for years".
"When I told that I was spat at a year and a half ago, people raised an eyebrow, and that was about it," she told Reuters.
Microcosm
Though underlining that this behaviour was carried out by only a tiny proportion of the community, she said what was happening in Beit Shemesh was "a microcosm of what's happening in the whole country".
On Monday, one police officer was slightly hurt and a number of Orthodox Jews were detained after a group of some 300 ultra-Orthodox residents pelted police with stones and eggs in an incident reportedly triggered after police tried to remove a sign ordering segregation.
A television crew attempting to film in the town were surrounded and harassed - the second alleged attack on journalists in as many days.
On Sunday, a crew from Channel 2 news, which originally aired Naama Margolese's story, were attacked as they were filming, say reports, with rocks allegedly thrown at their van.
After Monday's clashes, unnamed ultra-Orthodox activists from Beit Shemesh issued a statement condemning the violence, but also accusing the media of initiating "deliberate provocations in order to make the peaceful, quiet and tolerant residents, who live their lives according to their beliefs, look bad".
Such clashes have become more frequent in Israel in recent years as the authorities have challenged efforts by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate women in public places.
The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Jerusalem, says the events have highlighted what is a growing religious divide in Israel.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10% of the population in Israel. The community has a high birth rate and is growing rapidly.