Germany may have to help Greece-BDI industry chief

BERLIN, March 3 (Reuters) - Germany and France may have to offer help to debt-ridden Greece to save it from bankruptcy, the head of Germany's BDI industry association said. If Greece were to collapse, a chain reaction would be triggered with uncontrollable consequences, BDI President Hans-Peter Keitel told reporters late on Tuesday in comments embargoed for Wednesday.

In that event, the Greek government should talk to the International Monetary Fund about budget consolidation steps and about how the supervision of those measures would work.

Greece bore the main responsibility, Keitel said. "But we must think through bilateral solutions for the event that a restructuring with the IMF does not succeed," he said, adding that European countries such as Germany and France would be first in line.

Few German industry leaders or politicians have said bilateral aid for Greece might be needed and polls show a majority of Germans are against the idea of taxpayers' money going to bail out Athens.

However, some commentators are starting to accept that they may have to intervene to save the euro. Behind the scenes, talks are taking place among euro zone governments on possible mechanisms to support Greece if necessary, EU sources say. Germany would have to be involved.

Keitel also warned against letting the crisis spread to euro zone countries such as Spain and Italy. (Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; editing by Patrick Graham)