German Help To Greece 'Not Unlimited'

--Finance minister says Germany is willing to help but aid to Greece won't be unlimited

--Greece must guarantee that it will stick to pledges after elections

--Uncontrollable development in Greece must be prevented

BERLIN -- Germany is willing to help Greece but it's not willing to provide unlimited aid and a firm commitment from Greek policy makers to reform, together with austerity pledges, are needed, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday.

His comments on SWR radio come after the euro-zone finance ministers decided against a meeting in Brussels later Wednesday and to hold a telephone conference on Greece instead, because Athens has still not provided full commitment to an austerity and structural reform package that's a precondition for a second bailout package.

Schaeuble also said that it seems the Greek conservative party Nea Dimokratia isn't fully committed to the measures due to its strong support in polls ahead of the country's April general elections.

"We are very well aware of our responsibility for Greece and the Greek people," Schaeuble said. "As I have always said we can help, but we can't pour [money] into a bottomless pit."

He also said that regardless of Greece, the European Monetary Union won't fail, but a situation with Greece that's uncontrollable must be prevented.

Asked whether Europe is better prepared to deal with a Greek debt default, Schaeuble reiterated that "we do everything to keep Greece in the euro zone," but he also said the euro zone is now in a better situation to deal with such a case than two years ago.

"Of course we have used the two years to prepare ourselves better," Schaeuble said. "You can see, Italy is making great progress, Spain is making great progress."

He explained that by "better prepared" he meant that countries were tackling their problems more decisively, and Europe was finally setting up a stability union through its fiscal compact of tougher budget rules and had set up bailout facilities that hadn't been in place two years ago.

"The monetary union won't fail in any case," Schaeuble said. "But we must do everything to prevent a development in Greece that might get uncontrollable."

He said negotiations with private creditors over a debt restructuring are "at a far advanced" stage but he said he "can't judge" whether the Greek government had reached an agreement to bridge the EUR325 million funding gap of its austerity package agreed with official creditors.

Greece needs a second bailout package worth at least EUR130 billion ($171.5 billion) to prevent it from defaulting on its debt repayments in March. However, the aid package could reach as much as EUR145 billion as the troika of Greece's public-sector lenders--the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund--has proposed that Greece receive an additional EUR15 billion to keep the country funded over the next three years, the Greek finance minister told his party's deputies Saturday.

Schaeuble was critical of Greece's decision to hold general elections in April and said it would be better for Athens to follow Italy's example and install a technocrat cabinet for a longer, though limited, period of time.

It's an "indispensable condition" that Greece makes it clear that "what has been agreed ahead of the elections, remains valid after the elections, regardless of the outcome," as Portugal and Ireland have done, he added.