German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview with Deutsche Welle published on Saturday that there was some room to extend maturities on Greek debt but that this room was limited.
"Outright debt forgiveness doesn't work at all under European law," Mr. Schaeuble said. "But we do have a certain amount of room to extend maturities further. This room is not very big."
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for "significant debt relief" for Greece, describing this as a condition for its participation in a third bailout for Greece that was approved by euro zone finance ministers late on Friday.
Germany is very keen to keep the IMF on board but has repeatedly ruled out a writedown of the face value of Greece's debt through a so-called "haircut".
