Euro zone finance ministers dismissed talk of Greece leaving the euro zone as "propaganda and nonsense" on Monday, but said the country had to respect the terms of the bailout programme agreed with the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
If Greece can form a government and that government signs up to the bailout agreement, then it is possible some of the targets in the programme could be softened, the chairman of the euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said.
"I don't envisage, not even for one second, Greece leaving the euro area. This is nonsense; this is propaganda," Juncker, who also serves as Luxembourg's prime minister, told reporters, dismissing those who threaten Greece with expulsion.
"The exit of Greece out of the euro was not the subject of our debate today. Absolutely no one, absolutely no one, argued in that sense," he said after six hours of talks among the 17 ministers from the euro zone countries.
"But the Greek public, the Greek citizens, have to know that we agreed on a programme and this programme has to be implemented."
Eight days after inconclusive elections, Greece's political parties have failed to form a coalition and opinion polls show that anti-bailout parties would perform most strongly in a fresh vote, which is likely next month.
Last ditch talks led by President Karolos Papoulias on Monday looked unlikely to make headway after the leader of the radical leftist SYRIZA party said he would not attend and another left-wing leader refused to take part in any coalition without him.
The central demand of SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras is to tear up the EU-IMF bailout agreement, which imposes harsh austerity on Greece.
EU officials have stressed that room for renegotiation of the 130 billion euro bailout is very small, although Juncker appeared to offer some leeway to Athens, if Greek parties manage to overcome differences and back the bailout reform plan.
"If there were to be dramatic changes in the circumstances, we wouldn't preclude a debate about an extension of the period (for Greece to meet targets)," Juncker said.
"I didn't say there was any intention to extend the periods, we have to do things in the appropriate order," he said.
"We need a Greek government. The Greek government would have to make clear it was fully committed to the programme, and then if there were exceptional circumstances, we wouldn't exclude the possibility of discussing this issue.
"It wasn't discussed today because those two other conditions were not met: we haven't got a Greek government and we haven't got any particular circumstances to warrant this discussion. Anyway, there wouldn't be any substantive change involved."
With Greece set to run out of money as early as next month and no new government in place to negotiate the next aid installment, investors have begun betting that a chaotic Greek default and euro exit will happen sooner rather than later.
Talk of any member exiting the euro zone used to be a taboo for policymakers. Not any more.
Over the weekend, European Central Bank policymakers Luc Coene and Patrick Honohan both openly voiced the possibility of Greece leaving the currency bloc and concluded that it would not be fatal for the euro zone.
But there are powerful incentives for keeping Greece afloat, not least that the ECB and euro zone governments are major holders of Greek government debt.
A hard default could leave them with heavy losses and if the ECB needed recapitalising as a result, that bill would also fall on its members' governments, with Germany first in line.
