Sweden on Wednesday cancelled the sale of four billion kronor (450 million euros, $600 million) worth of treasury bonds, blaming higher yields in the neighbouring eurozone for driving down interest in Swedish debt.

"We issued two bills, one was at six months and that was sold completely as we wished," Marja Laang, a spokeswoman for the Swedish National Debt Office, told AFP.

"The other one, at three months, we got bids but the buyers wanted too-high interest rates so we didn't sell to them. That's why we cut the auction for about half of the amount," she explained, insisting the move had nothing to do with the health of the Swedish economy.

The cancelled three-month bonds were worth about four billion kronor out of a total issue value of 10 billion, she said, adding that the average rate of return for investors at this bi-monthly sale was 1.46 percent.

By contrast, bond purchasers could on Wednesday could expect a rate of return of 5.84 percent for Greek bonds with a comparable maturity date on the secondary market.

"We don't have any problems borrowing. I think that the buyers can buy these bills elsewhere from other governments with much higher interest rates and of course they're interested in having the highest return," Laang said.

Sweden meanwhile had no intention of borrowing money at higher rates, she said, adding that the Scandinavian country had "other ways of borrowing money" like through banks and shorter-term bonds.

"We are in a very fortunate position in Sweden. That's why we don't have to pay high interest rates," Laang said.

With record growth, healthy public finances, booming exports and a soaring krona, Sweden is along with Germany considered to have one of the healthiest economies in Europe.

German three-month bonds carry an even lower rate of return than the Swedish ones, standing at 0.419 percent Wednesday on secondary markets.

Yields on the European bond market have been pushed up since Tuesday amid uncertainty surrounding the bolstering of the European Financial Stability Facility, and as investors increasingly turn their back on bonds and opt for stocks.