The European Commission said today it is looking for a "clear signal" from the German government that it will redress its budget deficit.
Brussels said it was hoping Berlin would implement an agreement by euro-zone finance ministers last week to cut their public deficits by at least 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product a year.
"We will look for the application of last week's euro group consensus," the EU spokesman Mr Gerassimos Thomas, said.
"It will obviously be helpful if we have a clear signal from the German authorities that we are heading in the right direction," he said, adding Brussels would wait to see Germany's 2003 budget.
On Saturday Germany's Social Democrats and Greens, who are in talks about setting up a new coalition government, indicated they were targeting a balanced budget by 2006.
That would be in line with a European Commission proposal to give euro-zone countries an extra two years to get their books in order. Germany, France, Italy and Portugal are all unlikely to meet the initial 2004 target.
However, last week's meeting of euro-zone finance ministers in Luxembourg refused formally to adopt the new deadline of 2006, after smaller EU states reacted angrily to perceived favouritism towards the struggling big powers.
PA