Cyprus president Nicos Anastasiades has said he will appeal for extra assistance from the European Union.
On Thursday, it emerged that Cyprus would need to raise an extra 6bn euros ($7.8bn; £5.1bn) to secure a 10bn euro bailout from Brussels and the IMF.
Mr Anastasiades is urging EU leaders to change their policy towards Cyprus, but he is not asking for more money.
He made the announcement ahead of a eurozone finance ministers meeting in Dublin.
‘Critical times’
According to a draft document prepared by the country’s creditors, the cost of the rescue has risen to 23bn euros from 17.5bn euros, with Cyprus now having to find 13bn euros of this.
The Dublin meeting will review how Cyprus can raise its contribution to the bailout being put together by the EU and IMF.
A Cypriot official in Dublin told the BBC’s economics correspondent Andrew Walker that Cyprus is not seeking more bailout money, but is rather seeking help from EU to reduce the burden of the conditions to make the bailout possible.
Meanwhile, the German government said that the size of a eurozone bailout would not rise.
“The contribution from international creditors will not change,” said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert, noting that 10bn euro package was “already very large”.
President Anastasiades said he had already spoken to EU Economy and Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn ahead of the Dublin meeting.
He also said he would also be writing to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and to EU President Herman Van Rompuy.
“The letter to Mr Barroso and Mr Rompuy will refer to the need for EU policy to change towards Cyprus by giving it extra assistance, given the critical times we are going through as a result of the economic crisis and the measures imposed on us,” Mr Anastasiades said.
The finance minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, said on Friday that Europe and the IMF could not increase their 10bn euro share of the bailout.
“I believe the policy will be that the volume will remain at 10bn [euros],” he told a German radio station.
Late on Thursday, a Cypriot government spokesman confirmed that one fundraising option being considered was the sale of some of the country’s gold reserves.
“The Cypriot government put various options forward, including this,” Christos Stylianides told a news conference.
He blamed the gulf between the original bailout total and the new 23bn figure on the previous administration and the time it took to negotiate a bailout, delays which pushed the cost of recapitalising its banks much higher.
Mr Stylianides accused former President Dimitris Christofias of failing to “take responsibility, and complete indecisiveness” in promptly negotiating a bailout.
‘Big burden’
Analysts said the increase in the cost of the bailout meant Cyprus faced huge new challenges.
Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said that the “biggest burden of the increase in the bailout will fall on depositors and bank bond-holders, whose combined contribution will rise from an expected 5.8bn euros to 10.6bn euros.”
Under bailout terms agreed in March, depositors with more than 100,000 euros in savings will bear part of the cost of the rescue.
The bank sector on which much of the Cypriot economy was dependent is shrinking, and thousands of jobs are being lost.
Laiki Bank is being wound up and its healthy assets transferred to the Bank of Cyprus.
Capital controls
Late on Thursday, Cyprus relaxed restrictions that were imposed last month on access to accounts in order to head off a run on banks.
The capital controls, the first that any eurozone country has applied, were put in place when banks reopened on 28 March after they were closed until a bailout agreement.
A new decree, which will remain in place for seven days, lifts all restrictions on transactions under 300,000 euros, a move aimed at helping cash-starved domestic businesses which had difficulty paying suppliers and employees.
Also, the daily limit on transactions outside of Cyprus not requiring prior approval is raised from 5,000 to 20,000 euros.
However, the daily cash withdrawal limit of 300 euros stays in place.
Meanwhile, eurozone officials at the meeting in Dublin are also due to review Slovenia’s growing problems.
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