Belgium Finmin says debt crisis as bad as 2008: paper

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The current sovereign debt crisis is at least as severe as the 2008 crisis in the banking sector, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said in an interview published on Saturday.

"We are in a crisis situation at least as heavy as the one we knew in the banking sector," he said in the interview with Belgian newspaper L'Echo.

"This crisis doesn't only affect some players, as we initially thought. The U.S. credit rating has been downgraded during the summer, and the phenomenon affects the whole planet," Reynders said.

Euro zone countries should seek to take some advantage from the crisis by using it to strengthen European economic integration, he said, but that would only happen if all countries made a concerted effort.

"Those who are asked to show solidarity, and who today say that euro bonds will cost more -- such as Germany and the Netherlands -- but also others, who must accept greater fiscal integration," he said.

On Friday, Reynders urged Germany and France to rethink their position on the creation of commonly issued euro zone bonds, after the two countries ruled out the idea during a summit in Paris.

Belgium has done much to consolidate its own banking sector "even if we are not at the end of the road yet," Reynders said, adding the country's two largest banks -- KBC (KBC.BR) and Dexia (DEXI.BR) -- had already been restructured under pressure from the European Union.

(Reporting by Charlie Dunmore; editing by James Jukwey)