Germany says euro zone has hands full with existing Greek bailout programme

By Andrés González and Philip Blenkinsop

BARCELONA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany and the European Commission said on Wednesday that talk of a third bailout for Greece was premature, while Spain's Economy Minister was insistent that further support was almost inevitable.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Athens was unlikely to be able to return to capital markets by June, when an extension of its bailout expires, and so some form of further aid programme looked likely.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, asked about a third package at a news conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels, said she was focusing on the current bailout, now extended for four months: "I think we now have all our hands full to make this succeed and that's what I'm concentrating on," she said.

De Guindos had already suggested on Monday that the euro zone was talking about another bailout for Greece, with a package worth between 30 billion and 50 billion euros ($33 billion-56 billion) under discussion, prompting denials from euro zone officials.

De Guindos said on Wednesday that the size of any third support deal had yet to be agreed and that euro zone finance ministers would examine Greece's liquidity needs and debt maturities at a Eurogroup meeting next week.

"If Greece does not recover market access by June ... we will have to establish some other type of agreement with Greece, call it a pact, a deal, a programme," de Guindos told a conference in Barcelona.

"We have given ourselves these four months to, one, see what the real situation is, to see how Greece has met conditions and to try and establish what happens next (...), which is fundamentally a third rescue."

A German finance ministry spokesman said no discussion of a third Greek aid programme was on the agenda for Monday's Eurogroup meeting.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday denied his country needed another international rescue deal, while the spokeswoman for Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the euro zone finance ministers' group, said no talks were underway.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde told MSNBC in an interview on Wednesday that the success of Greece's reform plan would depend on the framework put in place and how the overhaul is implemented.

European Commission chief Juncker agreed with Merkel on the need to focus on implementing the extension to Greece's bailout agreed by euro zone finance ministers last month.

"It is premature to talk about a third programme," he said. "That is speculation that is best avoided."

Tsipras has pledged to dismantle Greece's bailout programme, but since being elected in January has had to make key concessions and extend Athens' current aid programme as the country faces funding problems and tries to fend off a banking crisis.

(Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, Stephen Brown in Berlin; Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Julien Toyer and Susan Fenton)