"Technically and also legally it doesn't work any other way but for a request to be submitted to extend the current program and to accept the conditions of this program," Schelling told the Austrian public broadcaster ORF.

"We know that in the framework of the conditions there is, of course, room for flexibility," he said, adding that such an extension could last for four or six months to allow for new measures to be taken or contracts to be signed with Greece.

(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Kevin Liffey)