HELSINKI (MNI) - European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen danced lightly around the subject of Greece in a Finnish radio interview Tuesday, stressing instead that all nations with large deficits must get them under control.

"Greece is committed to getting the situation under control and its budget deficit under 3% by 2010. I don't want to comment further about one nation," Liikanen, who heads the Bank of Finland, told the Finnish station YLE Radio Puhe. Though he later added, "I trust that Greece will get control of the situation."

He noted that the U.S. budget deficit, which is over 10% of GDP, is "much more than the eurozone average," and that in many EU countries the deficit is greater than the statutory limit of 3%.

"It's important that every nation get its situation under control," Liikanen exhorted. "Large deficits affect ability to borrow money - interest rates. The situation has to be solved."

Liikanen also said that the current level of ECB interest rates is "appropriate," and that there is "no upside risk to prices." He later elaborated that there was "a balance" in inflationary pressures, with labor and indirect taxes on the upside and the economy on the downside. So, "all in all the whole situation is in balance," he said.

Liikanen declined to comment on when or whether the ECB might begin raising borrowing costs, saying, "we never comment on upcoming rate rises."