"The markets continue to disbelieve in our country," Mr. Papaconstantinou told reporters. "We have to plan our next steps for 2012, for 2013."
This could mean turning to the European Financial Stability Facility if the Greek government is still unable to issue debt in capital markets in 2012 as planned. The remark was the first public indication from a Greek official that Athens is preparing for that contingency.
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Sunday that European Union countries will spend the next several weeks discussing ways to provide Greece with more financial aid as the country struggles to reduce its debt burden.
"I think it's inevitable that we are going to look at the Greek package and see what they can do to get through next year, but that might involve additional assistance from, for example, the euro zone," he said in an interview with BBC television.
Mr. Osborne said the chance of Greece being unable to regain access to capital markets next year has been recognized as a problem. But he said he doesn't think it is inevitable that Greece will default on its debt.
"There are some very difficult questions that Greece has to address now," Mr. Osborne said. "Because the whole assumption when the euro zone put together a rescue package last year was that Greece would come back into the market and borrow. The market is quite skeptical about this happening."
The U.K. isn't one of the 17 euro-zone countries sharing the euro currency, but government bailout decisions require approval from all EU countries.
The possibility that Greece will be unable to meet financial payments next year without more external aid was the focus of a top level meeting of European Union officials in Luxembourg late Friday.
At that meeting, Greece asked its euro-zone partners to ease the country's deficit targets as it struggles to comply with strict austerity terms set under last year's financial bailout agreement, a senior euro-zone government official said Saturday.
The senior official said Greece acknowledged that it was unlikely to be able to return to the bond market next year and might need to tap the EFSF for funding. A German proposal to possibly extend the maturities of Greek debt falling due in 2012 also was discussed, this person said.
Athens has a long-term borrowing requirement of €27 billion ($39 billion) in 2012.
"Greece has asked for the deficit targets to be eased, specifically to push the budget deficit target of 3% of GDP in 2014 forward by at least two years," the official with direct knowledge of the talks told Dow Jones Newswires.
This official also said that Athens is asking other euro-zone member states to further extend the repayment deadline on the €110 billion bailout loan granted last year.
The EU in March extended its €80 billion portion of the loan from three to seven years, and the International Monetary Fund is expected to do the same with its €30 billion tranche in June.
The European Commission said Friday's meeting in Luxembourg included the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Greece. Also attended were ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Olli Rehn and Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker. No decisions were made, according to the commission's statement.
Greece's request for easier terms didn't win the assent of Germany and other participants in Friday's meeting, according to a senior European official.
German officials are concerned that the Greek government is losing the political will to drive through fiscal cuts and economic overhauls. Germany is looking for Greece to redouble and accelerate its efforts as a condition of being granted any additional aid.
Germany spelled out at Friday's meeting that any additional loans for Greece should be part of a package that includes tougher reforms and talks between Greece and its bondholders about a voluntary rescheduling of Greek bonds.
The ECB, the European Commission, France and others remain opposed to any rescheduling of Greek debt, fearing it could spark worsening capital flight from other indebted euro members and damage the Greek banking system.
"There is strong opposition to this by Trichet," one euro-zone official said, adding that the Greek issue will be "extensively discussed" at the May 16-17 meeting of European Union finance ministers.
These meetings precede the June audits of the Greek government's budget to measure the sustainability of the country's debt load, seen as a key hurdle for Greece's recovery plan.
Eurogroup's Mr. Juncker told journalists after the Luxembourg meeting Friday night that it was decided that Greece needs a further adjustment program, but he excluded restructuring the country's sovereign debt.
The president representing the 17 countries using the euro joined other officials in firmly denying press reports that Greece was considering a withdrawal from the euro zone altogether.
But Mr. Juncker said Greece needed a further adjustment program, without furnishing details.
"We are not discussing the exit of Greece from the euro area, this is a stupid idea and an avenue we would never take," Mr. Juncker said Friday.
Asked if rescheduling Greek debt to extend maturities also had been excluded, Mr. Juncker said: "We have excluded any restructuring of Greek debt."
At the root of Greek concerns is a lack of investor confidence regarding its debt outlook, making new borrowing possible only at prohibitive cost.
Yields on two-year Greek bonds have topped 23% on persistent fears that the country will have to restructure its debt at some point, forcing investors to absorb heavy losses on their holdings.
ING bank analysts said in a report that Greek bonds maturing in five years or more price in around a 50% loss of principal to investors who bought them at face value.
By COSTAS PARIS and ALKMAN GRANITSAS
WSJ
