ROME- Spain and Portugal will implement the proposal to curb power prices they have put jointly to their European Union partners, even if the EU council held on March 24-25 does not agree with it, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Friday.

The two Iberian countries proposed the EU should limit wholesale electricity prices to 180 euros per megawatthour (MWh) to tackle a record surge in energy prices. Gas-fired plants, whose costs surpass that limit would be given compensation from a European fund.

Speaking in Rome after meeting his counterparts from Greece, Italy and Spain, Costa said Spain and Portugal could "move forward together in the Iberian market to establish this mechanism".

Governments across Europe have been seeking to cushion consumers from the impact of a surge in gas prices, driven by concerns of supply disruption after Russia, Europe's top gas supplier, invaded Ukraine.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the European Union must take concrete measures to curb energy prices no later than the March 24-25 summit.

"Let's get a solution that can be applied on the next day," he told reporters.

Spain approved an initial package of measures in September to contain the rise in energy prices, but in contrast to other European countries, has not taken additional measures since the start of the Ukrainian invasion on Feb. 24.

Sanchez said the priority is to resolve the "dysfunction" of the electricity market within the bloc.

He said Spain will approve a national rescue plan on March 29 that will "share the burdens of the war more fairly among citizens".

In a television interview on Monday, Sanchez said energy tax cuts would be extended, and other measures, such as state-backed soft loans, were also possibilities.

(Reporting by Belen Carreno, Inti Landauro, Patricia Rua and Crispian Balmer; editing by Barbara Lewis)