'Natural' for Greece to keep IMF option open: EU official

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission said Thursday it was "natural, logical and prudent" for Greece to keep all options open as Athens considers the possibility of going to the IMF.

"It's natural that the (Greek) prime minister does not rule out any option," said Amadeu Tardio, spokesman for economic and monetary affairs, when asked about the possibility of Athens turning to the International Monetary Fund for help.

"For a politician responsible for his country's destiny, that would seem to me to be natural, logical and even prudent," he said.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told the European parliament in Brussels on Thursday that "Europe must come in and say 'OK in this case -- we either can provide what an IMF would provide ... or in the end Greece may have to choose the option to go to the IMF'."

Papandreou said there was "an opportunity to make a decision next week" at a summit of EU leaders, after finance ministers left it up to their bosses to decide whether to approve a plan for eurozone nations to step in.

"This is an opportunity we should not miss," the prime minister stressed, having said on Wednesday that "nothing is excluded" when asked whether seeking recourse to the International Monetary Fund remained a live threat.

A government spokesman in Athens had earlier said that was the case.

The commission spokesman Tardio underlined that "we hope that the (summit) will bear fruit" next Thursday and Friday.

Over recent days, German refusals to commit to binding deals affecting its taxpayers, and a drive to change EU treaty rules to penalise eurozone countries that violate bloc budgetary regulations, have triggered pessimism in Athens, a drop in the value of the euro and a rise in interest rates Greece must pay to borrow the money it needs.

Papandreou also told the parliament that "we are under a basically IMF programme, whether it's called that or no."

"We don't have, on the other hand, facilities that the IMF would give.

"We don't want to be in a situation where we have the worst of the IMF, if you like, and none of the advantages of the euro."