German FDP expert says Greece must weigh EMU exit -report

BERLIN, April 22 (Reuters) - A finance expert from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's junior coalition partners was reported as saying Greece needed to intensify its austerity plan or leave the euro zone currency union.

Frank Schaeffler, of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) who share power with Merkel's conservatives, told Handelsblatt business daily that Greece's debt situation was worsening and that further savings measures were needed.

"If Greece cannot push through these austerity measures, it must opt out of the euro zone voluntarily," he said in an advance copy of an article to run in the paper's Friday edition.

The yield on two-year Greek government bonds rose above 10 percent on Thursday as the country's debt came under intense pressure after an upward revision to last year's budget deficit.

The European Commission said Greece was still on track to meet a 4 percentage point deficit reduction target this year but the upward revision of the starting point means it will have to intensify deficit cutting efforts in 2011 and 2012. [ID:nLDE63L12B]

Before the data, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called Greece's budget savings programme for this year "extraordinarily ambitious," adding: "If it is implemented it is sufficient." (Reporting by Brian Rohan, editing by Mike Peacock)