Eurozone ban for fiscal rule-breakers: German minister

(BERLIN) - Countries that break the euro area's fiscal rules should, in extreme circumstances, be expelled from the club, Germany's finance minister said Monday.

"We need stricter rules -- that means, in an extreme emergency, having the possibility of removing from the euro area a country that does not get its finances in order," Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying.

He reiterated the need for a European Monetary Fund, saying the rules currently governing the 16-nation eurozone -- the Stability and Growth Pact -- were not sufficient for the current crisis facing the club.

"We need the EMF because we need stricter rules. The euro stability pact is not enough. At the time, no one thought of the possibility that a euro country could become insolvent," he told mass circulation daily Bild.

However, Schaeuble insisted that the mooted EMF was not tailored for the Greek crisis and praised Athens for the measures it had already taken to rein in its budget deficit.

The minister's comments came as eurozone ministers in Brussels were set to discuss an unprecedented multi-billion euro safety net to rescue Greece if its debt situation spirals out of control.

In a guest editorial in the Financial Times, Schaeuble wrote on Friday that if a country were expelled from the monetary union, it could remain a member of the EU.