France's Sapin says Greek crisis threatens EU growth

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Thursday that Greece's EU partners had an interest in continuing to support its finances since failure to stabilize the Greek economy would threaten growth across the bloc. Noting the weakness of the economic recovery in Europe, Sapin told the finance committee of the European Parliament: "If we don't stabilize things in Greece, it wouldn't be an economic disaster -- it would be a disaster for the Greek economy, in my view, it wouldn't be a disaster for the euro zone -- but it would be a factor hampering the overall recovery. So we have a common interest in finding sustainable solutions." The priority for euro zone finance ministers remained concluding current talks to complete Greece's current bailout by a June deadline but he said that it was clear that Athens would also require some form of financial support after that. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; @macdonaldrtr)