He was responding to media reports that euro zone countries, which are now handling the bailout on their own, were ready to give up on IMF involvement because of problems agreeing a common stance on Greek reforms, fiscal targets and debt relief.

"I spoke to (IMF Managing Director Christine) Lagarde quite recently and she reassured me that the IMF has still strong intentions to remain part of the programme and to take that step and to participate to the programme in full," Dijsselbloem said.

Last week the German finance ministry said it still expected the IMF to participate in the bailout, rejecting a newspaper report that Berlin was preparing for a deal without the global lender.

The latest Greek bailout, the third since 2010, started in the middle of 2015 and is due to end in mid-2018.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski and Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Catherine Evans)