FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Greek banks are solvent and better able to cope with the difficult period they are facing following earlier efforts to make themselves safer, the head of the European Central Bank's supervisory arm told the Financial Times.

"The Greek banks are solvent," Daniele Nouy said in a television interview posted on the Financial Times website.

"They have done a lot of work with the Greek supervisors during the last years and months to get safer, sounder," she added.

"They are much more able thanks to this work to sustain the difficult period of time they are facing now, issues that are more country issues than banking system issues."

(Reporting by John O'Donnell; editing by Paul Carrel)