The South American country's risk climbed 1.4 percent to 779 basis points over safe-haven U.S. Treasuries on JP Morgan's index <11EMJ>. The index as a whole stood at 297 as of 9:59 a.m. local time (0859 EDT).

Tough-talking Argentine President Cristina Fernandez unveiled legislation late Tuesday that would also seek to push bondholders to swap debt held under foreign legislation for new notes governed by Argentine law.

(Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)