IMF participation to Greek bailout 'non-negotiable' - EU's Dijsselbloem

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The participation of the International Monetary Fund in the Greek bailout programme is "non-negotiable", the head of euro zone finance ministers said on Thursday.

Speaking at the end of a monthly meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels, Jeroen Dijsselbloem said future bailout programmes for Greece may be carried out without the IMF, but for the current one, the participation of the IMF was "non-negotiable" because of the expertise of the fund and its financial contribution.

The IMF has not yet decided whether it would participate in the current 86-billion-euro financial aid programme for Greece, the third one since 2010.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Jan Strupczewski)