Germany said on Monday there was "zero" chance of it paying World War II reparations to Athens, following a renewed demand from Greece's new leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Tsipras, in his first major speech to parliament on Sunday, laid out plans to dismantle Greece's austerity program, ruled out any extension of its €240 billion international bailout and vowed to seek war reparations from Berlin.

The demand for compensation, revived by a previous Greek government in 2013 but not pursued, was rejected outright by Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's vice chancellor and economy minister.