BERLIN (MNI) - The German Finance Ministry on Tuesday evening denied press reports that a rescue for Greece had been decided, calling the reports speculation.

"There has been no decision made on a rescue" for Greece, Ministry spokesman Michael Offer said. "There is work underway in connection with the preparation for the European Council to work out with Greece further consolidation steps to calm the markets."

He stressed that "everything else is speculation." Offer's remarks echo these of government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm who dismissed the press reports on Tuesday evening as "unfounded" and also denied any decision had been taken.

The Financial Times had reported that German officials conceded they were looking at ways to build a "firewall" in order to prevent the debt crisis in Athens from spreading across the eurozone.

According to the FT report, Germany is increasingly worried that should the financial market pressure on Greece intensify, it could begin to hit German and other eurozone banks.

The FT quoted one German government official saying that the recent steep decline in the euro and pressure on bond prices had convinced Germany to "take significant steps" to deal with the crisis. "We've had to face up to the fact that what is now a Greek problem could turn into a European one," the official was quoted as saying.

"We're thinking about what we should do if the crisis spills from Greece into other euro countries," he continued. "So it's more about finding firewalls, containing the problem, than principally about helping the Greeks." The official added, however, that there are "no concrete plans" as yet.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Germany was studying the possibility of offering loan guarantees to Greece and other eurozone countries in fiscal difficulty. France's daily Le Figaro said two options were being considered: loan guarantees for Greece administered by some sort of "European fund," and bilateral aid made conditional on Greek good faith in honoring its deficit-cutting commitments.