A Greek exit from the eurozone will be on the agenda if Athens fails to impose austerity measures required in its EU-IMF bailout deal, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici has said.

"The question would be raised without a doubt.... if the Greeks themselves do not respect their commitments," Mr Moscovici said on French television, adding that he hoped Greece would remain in the eurozone.

The French finance chief was responding to questions about comments made by Greece's radical leftist leader Alexis Tsipras, who said on Friday that he wanted to scrap the bailout deal if he won the June 17 elections.

Mr Moscovici said that position would "greatly complicate" the situation and admitted that there was "perhaps reflections here and there" about the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone.

Mr Moscovici added he would work to try to avoid that scenario from happening.

Tsipras's Syriza party surprised Europe on May 6 by placing second in an inconclusive election in which no party was able to either win an overall majority or broker a coalition government.

But voters fed up with salary and pension cuts shifted their loyalties to more radical parties.

A series of opinion polls published on Friday showed that neither Syriza nor its main rival, the conservative New Democracy party, would win an outright majority in new elections called after last month's electoral deadlock.

The June 17 vote will determine whether Greece will meet the terms of a deal under which the European Union and International Monetary Fund agreed to lend it hundreds of billions of euros in return for economic reforms.

Mr Moscovici also said it would better to recapitalise troubled European banks using the ESM bailout fund than use government money.

"I think that to recapitalise banks it's better to go through direct mechanisms, what we call the ESM, the European Stability Mechanism, rather than to go through states."----

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9309724/France-warns-Greek-euro-exit-on-the-agenda-if-bailout-measures-not-imposed.html