PARIS: The European Union is ready to intervene alongside the IMF if Greece asks for help dealing with its debt crisis, EU president Herman van Rompuy told major European dailies Friday.

Speaking as Greece struggled to convince financial markets to back its deficit reduction strategy, Van Rompuy told the papers that fellow members of the eurozone bloc were ready to provide financial aid.

"The Greek government is courageous and is breaking with the past. We would be ready to intervene if the Greeks ask us to," he told interviewers from Le Monde, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, El Pais and De Standaard.