"I do not have the slightest doubt that he will stick to that," Schaeuble told an event in Berlin.

The German finance ministry last month expressed concern about Italian plans to rescue the country's third biggest lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena and said Rome must stick to European rules for such bailouts.

At the time, a spokesman for the German ministry said precautionary state recapitalisation of banks could only be done under strict conditions, including that the bank must be solvent and creditors must be among the first to suffer losses.

(Reporting by Gernot Heller, Writing by Andrea Shalal)