Danish Prime Minister Mr Poul Nyrup Rasmussen yesterday dismissed suggestions that the international operation to rescue the euro could further sway opinion against his campaign to bring Denmark into the single currency.

He insisted he could still win Thursday's referendum despite fresh opinion poll evidence giving the euro-sceptics a strong lead.

"I do not think this will have a big role to play," he said, referring to yesterday's co-ordinated central bank intervention to strengthen the euro.

Although anti-euro campaigners seized on the central banks' intervention as proof that the euro was a flawed currency, the Prime Minister said that yesterday's market developments would not sway more voters towards the No camp.

"We are past the stage where the euro's position is playing a dominant role in people's decisions," he said.

With just five days to go before Danes enter the polling booths to decide their country's monetary future, Mr Rasmussen yesterday put on a brave show in front of the 100 foreign journalists assembled for a press conference in the state department's Hall of Mirrors.

"We will fight for what we stand for up to the final hour and we will work for a Yes," the tired-looking but defiant Prime Minister said.

Mr Rasmussen and all his cabinet colleagues have endured a gruelling campaign schedule for weeks, putting in five, six or more public appearances a day.

Despite the vigour of their campaign, opinion polls show that a majority of voters still do not want to trade in their kroner for euros.

The three polls published in Danish newspapers yesterday put the anti-euro side in the lead by between seven and 10 percentage points.

One of the most surprising elements of Denmark's original rejection of the single currency in the 1992 Maastricht treaty referendum was that opinion polls had indicated it would be carried.

The same applied in the 1998 general election when Mr Rasmussen defied the odds with an unexpected victory and a return to leadership.

But even if the opinion polls have got it right this time and Danes do snub the euro on Thursday, they should not expect Mr Rasmussen to surprise them with another referendum soon.

"A No is a No," he said yesterday.