However, “despite their significant differences… all sides do recognise they have a collective interest in trying to arrive at the package… that allows Greece to remain part of the eurozone”, Earnest said.
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A German Finance Ministry spokesman brushed aside Greek demands for a big debt write-down, which the global Monetary Fund said last week may be necessary.
But Paris is equally keen not to burn bridges with Germany, where ruling conservatives have taken a much tougher line on Greece and in some cases publicly evoked the possibility of a “Grexit”.
He said Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza government were “leading the Greek people on a path of bitter abandonment and hopelessness”.
While jubilant Greeks celebrated their national gesture of defiance late into the night, there was gloom in Brussels.
Mr Earnest said it was up to Greece and its creditors to resolve the crisis, describing it as “a European challenge to solve”.
Eurozone states will hold a summit on Tuesday to discuss the Greek referendum result.
His Social Democratic Party shares power with German chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
The French finance minister also said Greek banks would face enormous difficulties in coming days. There were long lines at ATMs, where 20-euro banknotes have largely run out.
Speaking on the French Europe 1 radio station, Sapin said: “There is a risk of leaving the euro but there is no automatic exit in the same way that the vote doesn’t mean automatically that Greece stays in the euro”.
After five years of economic crisis and mass unemployment, Greek electors voted 61.3 percent “No” to the bailout conditions already rejected by their radical leftist government, casting Greece into the unknown.
He said the Bank of Greece was immediately asking the European Central Bank to inject emergency cash for Greece’s banks, which have been closed all week because of capital controls.
“Europe is not in trouble, Europe is facing a Greek problem”, he said. But the losses were contained and there was no sign of serious contagion to other weaker euro zone sovereigns.
But on the streets of Athens, citizens were unrepentant at their defiant vote.
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“I voted “No” to austerity; I want this torture to end”, said Katerina Sarri, 42, a mother of two.
