Juncker wants to step down as Eurogroup head: report

(BERLIN) - Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker will ask eurozone finance ministers to announce that he plans to step down as head of their Eurogroup early next year, the German business daily Handelsblatt said in its edition due out on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted European diplomatic sources who said that Juncker had notified German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of the decision to encourage the finance ministers to come up with a successor.

Other sources in Brussels told Handelsblatt however that there was still a chance that Juncker would "hold on" until after key German legislative elections due to take place late next year.

Juncker has held the post as Eurogroup head since 2005, and his current term runs until July 17.

France and Germany, the two biggest eurozone countries, have not managed to agree so far on who should take on the pivotal job, with Paris resisting a German suggestion that Schaeuble be given the nod.

Although Germany has the biggest economy in Europe and pays the most into European Union and eurozone coffers, few Germans hold powerful EU positions.