'IMF could be on board for Greek bailout'

Nicosia: Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir suggested on Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund was on board for financing Greece's third bailout.

"It seems to me that yes, that finally" the IMF is going to participate, Kazimir said at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's annual meeting in Cyprus.

"We have to congratulate (IMF chief) Christine Lagarde that she managed to convince the board to do it," he said.

"The amount is not important. It's symbolic.... I've repeated many times that for us the IMF must be on board with technical assistance," the finance minister continued, according to a transcript provided by his ministry.

Greece and its creditors agreed a third, 86-billion-euro (USD 94-billion) bailout deal in July 2015, but the IMF refused to take part, on the grounds that the targets were unrealistic and Athens' debt mountain unsustainable.

The IMF played a central role in the first two financial rescues of Greece. But the fund never formally joined the third bailout alongside the eurozone and there has been increasing talk it may choose to walk away.