Berlin  - Germany's government has no plans to nationalize any commercial banks, a Finance Ministry spokesman said Friday in Berlin.

He spoke after Angela Merkel had said the previous evening that increased state intervention might be necessary in the current market panic.

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck's spokesman Torsten Albig said there were "no current considerations" of taking over banks.

Merkel's deputy spokesman Thomas Steg there had been no decision about conceivable future actions.

About half the German retail banking system is already state-run, with the federal and state governments either owning banks of their own or overseeing trustee savings banks and non-profit cooperative banks. (dpa)