French President Francois Hollande will follow German Chancellor Angela Merkel in visiting Greece, the Greek prime minister's office said on Friday.

"He will come, but we don't have the date or the official programme," said a source at the office of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Private television Skai reported that Hollande had accepted an invitation from Samaras on the sidelines of the European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Merkel paid a rare visit to Athens -- her first in five years -- on October 9 in which she praised the course of Greek reforms and repeated her desire to keep the struggling country in the eurozone.

Some 30,000 protesters had gathered in Athens at the time to vent their anger against the budgetary discipline preached by the German leader.

Merkel has become a hate figure in Greece over the austerity measures imposed on the country in return for promised loans and debt relief worth about 347 billion euros ($448 billion).