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By Jan Strupczewski
WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - A Greek debt restructuring is not in the cards because it would not help solve Greece's economic problems and it would hurt the euro zone, the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, said on Friday.
Rehn said that a debt sustainability analysis of Greece, to be started in May, would show what new steps the country would need to take to reach deficit and debt reduction goals agreed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
"Restructuring is not part of the plan, it is not in the cards," Rehn told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of financial leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies.
"It would neither be necessary, nor help Greece to overcome its economic difficulties as Greece needs reform and reform is the essential part of the programme," he said.
"Nor would it be beneficial to the euro area. It would actually be quite detrimental to Europe," he said.
German Deputy Foreign Minister Werner Hoyer, a member of the junior coalition party Free Democrats (FDP) was quoted on Friday as saying that a Greek debt restructuring "would not be disaster."
If Greece's creditors agreed that talks with Athens "would be helpful toward a restructuring of the debt, then of course this would be supported by us," news agency Bloomberg quoted Hoyer as saying.
Rehn commented that "This is that kind of moment when we have to ... practice rigorous verbal discipline -- it is a precondition for overcoming the latest stage of the crisis."
Rehn stressed that Greece must quickly move forward on its privatisation programme, which envisages state asset sales of 50 billion euros by 2015, with 15 billion euros to be raised in the first two years.
"The privatisation programme will be very important for the debt sustainability analysis," he said.
"We take the Greeks by their word that they intend to privatise 15 billion euros in the first two years and 50 billion euros altogether by 2015, which represents 22 percent of GDP of Greece -- in fact around 1/6th of the current debt burden."
"So alone, it will not solve the problem of Greece, but it is a very significant part of the solution," Rehn said.
Asked what would happen if the debt sustainability analysis shows that Greek debt is unsustainable, Rehn said: "Let's not jump the gun. It is premature to draw conclusions before the profound work has been done."
"We first want to analyse all the factors having an impact on debt sustainability, draw conclusions and only then will we consider whether and how the policy conditionality of the programme should be adjusted," Rehn said.
Asked if he expected Greece would be able to return to markets to borrow next year, as planned, Rehn said, "I am aware of the challenges Greece is facing, including the challenge of returning to the markets, but it is premature to judge this at this stage."
He noted that while in the first year of the Greek programme the main burden of adjustment was on the Greek finance minister, now all cabinet members had to lend their full support to the structural reforms Greece had to undergo.
"Now the scope has to be widened, so that the whole government, each and every minister and civil servant, are fully engaged in implementing the programme and doing the necessary structural reforms," Rehn said. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Leslie Adler)