Germany says wants stable Greece within euro zone

BERLIN May 16 (Reuters) - Germany wants to stabilise Greece within the euro zone but Athens must stick to its agreements with international lenders, a German government spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We want to stabilise Greece within the euro. That has been the goal of our policies from the start," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference.

He said that after Tuesday's meeting between Merkel and new French President Francois Hollande, the chancellor had said that "where there are opportunities for additional growth impulses in Greece, via support for Greece's own efforts, we are open to listen to such proposals or make proposals of our own".

"That could be the subject of future European talks. We have a summit in June and an informal meeting on May 23," he said. "But the agreements with Greece and the memorandum must be respected."

Seibert said the Merkel-Hollande talks showed the pair had "much, much more in common regarding European, international and bilateral politics than the little differences in nuance ... that there have always been between France and Germany, but which never got in the way of finding a common path".