Updated 12pm

Greece's leftist government has called on Germany to discuss the payment of war crime reparations a month before elections where it faces defeat.

The foreign ministry in Berlin on Wednesday confirmed having received the demand from Greece's ambassador which "calls on the German side to come to negotiations to resolve the pending issue".

A Greek parliamentary committee last year determined that Germany owes Greece at least €270 billion for World War I damages and looting, atrocities and a forced loan during the Nazi occupation in World War II.

The Greek parliament in April also voted through a resolution demanding the payment of reparations.

Germany later on Wednesday rejected the demands, saying the issue was settled long ago.

"I can repeat ... that over 70 years after the end of the war and more than 25 years after the Two Plus Four Treaty (allowing German reunification) the question of reparations has been legally and politically settled," said a foreign ministry spokesman.

The move, announced in Athens on Tuesday by the foreign ministry, comes ahead of early elections on July 7.

Reclaiming war reparations has been a campaign pledge by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras since 2015.

He is currently battling to galvanise his party after losing European and local elections over the last two weeks.

Berlin has always insisted the reparations issue was settled in 1960 in a deal with several European governments. 

Tsipras had put it on the backburner in recent years as he worked with German Chancellor German Merkel to keep Greece in the euro and manage migration and Balkans security.