WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) - Greece has not sought financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, said a fund official who reiterated that the IMF stands ready to help the country if asked.

"We have not had a request for financial assistance," Caroline Atkinson, the IMF's director of external relations, said today in a briefing with reporters in Washington. "It's still true," she said, when asked whether the fund is ready to respond to a request from Greece for a loan.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, speaking to reporters yesterday in Brussels, set a one-week deadline for the European Union to craft a financial aid mechanism for Greece, challenging Germany to give up its doubts about a rescue package.

Atkinson repeated that the IMF is providing Greece "technical assistance", as the country tries to resolve a fiscal crisis. "We expect the euro-zone countries to want to, and to plan to, resolve this question by themselves," she said.

Papandreou said he may turn to the IMF to overcome the debt crisis unless leaders agree to set up a lending facility at a summit March 25-26.

The IMF option has already been dismissed by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who say it would show the EU cannot solve its own crises.