FRANKFURT, March 3 (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers are pushing the European Central Bank to develop its own rating system for euro zone countries, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday, citing EU finance ministry sources.

The paper quoted one official saying the plan would free the euro zone from its dependency on international rating agencies such as Standard & Poors, Moody’s and Fitch.

“The agencies have been completely wrong in the case of Lehman. Who can be sure that they won’t be wrong again,” the source from the Ecofin group of finance ministers said.

The ECB said it had no comment on the plans.

ECB policymakers have been made acutely aware of problems of the current system by Greece’s growing troubles.

Were Moody’s to downgrade Greece below the crucial ‘A’ threshold --as the other two main agencies have-- Greek debt would not be able to be used as collateral in ECB lending operations come the end of the year.

Ewald Nowotny, a member of the ECB’s Governing Council, said the situation was “not acceptable,” on Tuesday.