Lagarde says IMF ready to help Greece if asked

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, says the fund stands "ready to assist Greece if requested to do so."

Her statement Monday was the IMF's first reaction to Greek voters' decisive rejection of further austerity measures in return for bailout loans.

"We are monitoring the situation closely," she said, without offering further details.

Greece is in arrears to the IMF, having failed to pay a 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) loan due last Tuesday. The IMF said it couldn't get involved in a further bailout of Greece if the country remained in arrears.

The IMF last week also said that Greece would need debt relief as well as new financing worth more than 60 billion euros through 2018 to avoid financial collapse.