* Euro below ichimoku cloud base, in downtrend
* Fears of debt crisis contagion seen undermining euro
* Liquidity thin due to U.S. Thanksgiving holiday
(Updates prices; changes byline, dateline; previous TOKYO)
By Anirban Nag
LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The euro struggled near a two-month low on Thursday as the euro zone debt crisis showed little signs of abating and fears of contagion still high after Ireland unveiled an ambitious austerity plan.
Traders said Portugal and increasingly Spain were seen as potentially in need of financial help while Dublin's belt-tightening plan has come under fire for sticking to optimistic growth assumptions, unveiled earlier this month.
Foreign exchange trading volumes were, however, light due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
"Things are a bit sidelined due to the U.S. holiday but there is still a lot of nervousness about euro zone peripheral debt problems. So the euro remains a sell into rallies and not a buy on dips, said Paul Mackel, director of currency strategy at HSBC."
European clearing house LCH.Clearnet raised on Thursday the margin requirements to trade Irish government debt, citing widening spreads over triple-A euro zone benchmarks. [ID:nLDE6AO0AB].
Pressure on Spanish and Portuguese yields has intensified. The trend towards rising spreads in Spain has also led to speculation as to whether the funds under a euro zone financial safety net would be sufficient to help a large country.
The euro was flat on the day at $1.3334, having hit a two-month low of $1.3284 EUR= on Wednesday. The next support is pegged at $1.3232, a 61.8 percent retracement of the August to November rally, a break of which could see the single currency test its 200-day moving average at $1.3133.
The currency has also fallen below support from the bottom of the cloud on the daily ichimoku chart, which stood at $1.3371, sending a major bearish signal. The last time it fell through the cloud was December 2009, preceding its six-month-long downtrend.
The euro was flat at 111.33 yen EURJPY=R, having fallen to 110.32 yen on Wednesday, a level last seen in mid-September.
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