Weidmann says ECB can't fund Greece if political talks fail-press

ROME (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will not be able to provide financial help for Greece if Athens' political negotiations with its creditors definitively break down, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said on Wednesday. Greece is running out of money and the ECB has been providing emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to its banks while a political stand-off continues over an aid-for-reforms deal to prevent a looming default. In an advance copy of an interview to be published on Thursday with Italian daily La Stampa, Weidmann, who sits on the ECB's governing council, said if the talks collapse it was not the ECB's role to keep Greece afloat. "It is not the ECB's task to finance states, in fact it is forbidden," he said when asked about ELA in the joint interview with three European newspapers. "If the talks fail at the political level the ECB will have no choice but to draw the necessary conclusions. It is up to politics, governments and parliaments to decide whether to finance Greece." He did not make specific reference to ELA. The ECB increased emergency help on Wednesday by 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion), taking the ceiling to 84.1 billion euros, a banking source told Reuters. Greece faces defaulting on a 1.6 billion euro debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund on June 30 unless it gets fresh funds from its euro zone and IMF lenders, possibly driving it towards the exit of the euro zone. "The responsibility for whether Greece remains in the euro is entirely up to the Greek government," Weidmann said. He added that if Athens were to fail to meet a debt payment "the consequences would be hard to control." The survival of the euro project does not depend on developments in Greece, Weidmann said, although a Greek exit could cause some contagion to other members and would "modify the character of the monetary union." In other remarks Weidmann, who has repeatedly been voted down on the ECB governing council in his hardline opposition to expansionary monetary policies, said fiscal rules in the euro zone need to be tougher and "applied more severely." "We have to make it possible for banks but also states to become insolvent without risking the collapse of the financial system. For this reason we must reinforce the financial system," he said. ($1 = 0.8825 euros) (Reporting By Gavin Jones; editing by James Mackenzie)