IMF says board to discuss new Greek loan March 15

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund will discuss Greece's new bailout program in a meeting tentatively scheduled for March 15, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday, although he cautioned that approval of funding for Athens depended on completion of agreed prior actions.

The meeting was originally set for March 13, according to IMF board sources.

"The executive board meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 15 and that is of course pending completion of prior actions by Greek authorities, pending establishment of financing assurances including agreement on a private bondholder debt exchange," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters.

Rice said the Fund had an interest in a successful debt exchange in Greece. "That will require a high participation rate," he told a regular news briefing.

Rice also said the IMF was preparing a staff mission to Italy in the spring for the country's annual economic review. He said timing of enhanced monitoring by the IMF of Italy's economy, agreed at a G20 leaders' summit in France last year, was up to the authorities.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by James Dalgleish)