Portugal's Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho promised on Friday to listen to the country in the face of protests against sweeping austerity under a bailout, but said more sacrifice will be necessary to fix the debt-laden country's economy.

"We are not deaf to the difficulties faced by the country," Passos Coelho told parliament.

The centre-right government has come under fire in the last week after it announced deeply unpopular tax hikes, prompting the biggest protest in the country since it sought a 78-billion-euro bailout last year.

(Reporting By Axel Bugge)