Austria's finance minister says he never backed 'Grexit'

Schelling said that he had always considered Greece's departure from the euro the "worst of all solutions" and for this reason had made efforts for an agreement.

Schelling said that the idea of a Grexit - especially the 'temporary' Grexit proposed by the German finance minister - should only have been raised in case of an extreme emergency and after a final agreement failed to be reached, adding that the best way would have been to achieve a solution together with Greece.

He said the Grexit plan was 'off the table' for the time being and that the ball was now in Greece's court, where the Greek government needed to get a majority in Parliament to back the measures envisaged by the agreement. If this was achieved, it would be a strong confidence-building measure showing that Greece was prepared to implement the programme, he added.

On a bridge loan for Greece, Schelling said that there were various options and that a combination will probably be nececessary, adding that Eurozone finance ministers will discuss the conclusions of the working group in a Wednesday' conference call.