German finance minister confident of court response to bailout

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is confident Germany's top court will rule that the EU's bailout fund and fiscal pact are compatible with national law, he said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.

The Constitutional Court agreed on Tuesday to examine complaints lodged against the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and new budget rules but gave no date for its verdict.

"As far as the pending decision of the Federal Constitutional Court is concerned, I am very confident after the hearing on Tuesday," Schaeuble told Bavarian regional newspaper Mittelbayerische Zeitung.

"I think it's good that the court is diving so deep into this matter and I hope that our position will soon be confirmed," he was quoted as saying.

The government argues that the tools for tackling the debt crisis were given legitimacy by parliament's approval of them by a large two thirds majority in late June.

Schaeuble told Mittelbayerische Zeitung he agreed with German President Joachim Gauck that politicians needed to communicate the euro zone crisis to the public better.

"That is very important indeed," he said, adding that it was, however, difficult to communicate such complex issues.

"I believe I can say that we are all trying very hard," he said.

Gauck said in a recent interview that Merkel needed to explain her approach to the euro zone crisis very precisely.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; editing by Keiron Henderson)