The European Central Bank says it has increased emergency funding to Greek banks by €900m (£627m) for one week.
ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank had offered more help through Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) following a request from the Bank of Greece.
Mr Draghi’s said the ECB’s total exposure to Greece was now €130bn.
Speaking at an ECB press conference in Frankfurt, he said that debt relief for Greece was “necessary”.
“It’s uncontroversial that debt relief is necessary and I think that nobody has ever disputed that,” Mr Draghi said.
“The issue is what is the best form of debt relief within our framework, within our legal institutional framework. I think we should focus on this point in the coming weeks.”
Mr Draghi said the ECB continued to act on the assumption that Greece is and will be a member of the euro area.
