Poland euro may be delayed if crisis persists-paper

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland may delay its euro adoption planned for 2012 if the financial turmoil continues beyond spring 2009, Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski was quoted as saying on Saturday.

"We can join the ERM-2 corridor in the spring of next year at the earliest. I hope the current turbulences on the currency markets will be over by then," Rostowski told Polska daily in an interview.

Asked what would happen if the crisis goes on after this date -- when Poland is set to enter the ERM-2 according to the government's euro roadmap -- Rostowski said: "Then we will delay our accession. Our goal remains 2012 for adoption of the euro but this is not ideology."

In order to adopt the common currency the Polish government must also change the constitution, which requires the support of the main opposition, the euro-sceptic Law and Justice.

The Polish zloty lost more than 20 percent to the euro since its highest levels in August and now trades at around 3.86 per euro.

A country willing to join the euro zone must firstly spend around two years in the currency exchange rate mechanism ERM-2 where its currency cannot move more than 15 percent on either side of a central parity rate.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Peter Blackburn)