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The 16-country eurozone remained split over aid for Greece after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said no agreement would come from this week's European Union summit and warned against false expectations in financial markets.

"I think it is very important that we don't put markets under any illusions. Aid is not on Thursday's agenda," Merkel said in an interview with Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio.

The best solution is for Greece itself to overcome its debt crisis, she said, pointing out that Athens so far hasn't asked for financial aid.

Merkel said future aid for Greece could conceivably include bilateral aid from EU countries or help from the International Monetary Fund.

"But there have been no decisions on this," Merkel said. "I explicitly leave this open," she said.

Her remarks come after the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, Friday urged EU leaders to do more at their March 25-26 summit than give Greece moral support.

Barroso wants a detailed contingency plan in case Greece faces a default on its debt, possibly featuring a system of bilateral loans. He said this would restore trust in Greece's standing in credit markets, where it currently has to pay high premiums for new borrowing needed to repay maturing debt.

Greece faces some EUR22 billion on debt redemptions over the next two months, but has so far raised only about EUR18 billion, while paying interest rates more than three percentage points above Europe's benchmark borrower, Germany.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has asked euro-zone partner countries to give assurances that they would arrange standby credit facilities, declaring that asking for help from the IMF was another option.

Papandreou warned at a trade union conference Friday that Greece is one step away from being unable to borrow on the international market. Greece can't continue to borrow at "usurious" interest rates and won't allow itself to be frozen out of international credit markets, he said.

Speculation that an EU aid package for Greece was in doubt pressured Greek government bond prices, sending yields higher. The cost of insuring EUR10 million of Greek government bonds against default for five years also rose by EUR12,000 early Friday. This represents a rise of more than EUR40,000 in two days.

Under pressure from the EU and ratings agencies, Greece's socialist government earlier this month announced a series of tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at slashing a budget deficit that hit an estimated 12.7% of gross domestic product last year, nearly four times the 3% limit under EU rules.

A number of German officials have favored an IMF rescue package in the event of a threatened Greek insolvency, a suggestion resisted by the EU Commission and France as an embarrassing intrusion into EU affairs.

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