The Porto region in the north, where there were four separate outbreaks, was particularly affected.

In the centre, near Alberlgaria-a-Velha, where more than 1,000 hectares of land were devastated Friday, fires broke out again and 250 firefighters were called in.

Several other areas continued to burn Saturday in the centre of the country, which has been suffering from a severe drought.

In all 734 firefighters using 207 vehicles and 16 aircraft were battling the blazes, officials said.

The organisation responsible for fire prevention gave a warning that there was a maximum risk of outbreaks Sunday in several parts of the north and centre because of high temperatures and drought.

At the end of June 97 percent of the country was suffering severe or extreme drought as almost no rain has fallen since the end of October.

Wildfires destroyed 21,504 hectares of brush and forest during the first six months of the year, compared with an average of 15,751 hectares during the past five years, agriculture ministry figures show.

In 2003 disastrous fires killed 20 people and destroyed more than 420,000 hectares of scrub and forest.