MILAN, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The director of the euro zone's emergency lending facility sees financial markets and the economy improving and no need for the facility's use, Klaus Regling said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.
The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) was set up this year to borrow cash on the market against up to 440 billion euros of joint euro zone government guarantees to help any zone member unable to finance itself in the markets.
"We are operational. If there was need we would be ready for action, but all the signals say that it is not needed. There is not the air of crisis of scarcely a few months ago," Klaus Regling said in Italy's daily La Stampa.
"Interest rate differentials have fallen, the euro is stable and markets have improved. The targeted states have launched credible improvements. There has been an improvement in the economy and competitiveness," he said.
Asked the daily about a roadshow for the EFSF in America and Asia, Regling, a former senior European Commission economic official, said it was not a roadshow because the EFSF had nothing to sell apart from its name.
"The logic is that if the worst should happen, we would know who the potential buyers (for EFSF bonds) would be. There is a lot of interest in us and Europe," he said.
Any offering of EFSF bonds would be in situations of tense markets when investors would look for triple A paper, he said.
Getting rating agencies to give the EFSF a triple A rating had been "harder than expected. In the past, Europe, me included, have accused the agencies of giving Triple A rating lightly. Perhaps they wanted to demonstrate it is not true."
Asked about the EU's planned stronger public finance controls, he said automatic sanctions against errant states would have been "more reassuring".
(Writing by Nigel Tutt, editing by Miral Fahmy)