* New opposition party eyes coalition with PM Tusk's PO
* Raps Tusk government over lack of reforms
By Gabriela Baczynska and Marcin Goclowski
WARSAW, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A new centre-right opposition party said on Tuesday it would join a coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform (PO) after this year's election, provided it signed up to "decisive" reforms.
Tusk's PO, in power since 2007, has won praise for steering Poland successfully through the global financial crisis but now faces growing criticism over its reluctance to implement tough fiscal reforms to curb public debt and a large budget deficit.
"Yes, we are ready for a coalition with PO," Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, leader of the Poland Is Most Important (PJN) party, told Reuters in an interview.
"This would depend on signing a clear coalition agreement detailing economic reforms that we would carry out together. It is clear that Poland is in a difficult situation now and it's high time for decisive reforms," she said.
Poland's economy, the only one in the 27-nation European Union to avoid recession in 2009, is expected to grow by 4 percent this year but the budget deficit is about 8 percent of GDP and the government has ruled out deep spending cuts.
PJN comprises moderate conservatives who late last year quit Poland's main opposition party, the nationalist-populist Law and Justice Party (PiS), after clashing with its combative leader, former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Opinion polls give PJN only between 3 and 7 percent support. However, if it clears the 5 percent threshold for entering parliament its backing could prove useful for PO, which remains Poland's most popular party but is unlikely to win a big enough mandate to govern alone after the election, expected in October.
REFORMS SOUGHT
Other possible PO partners include its present coalition party, the Peasants' Party (PSL), and the leftist opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD).
But analysts say PJN is in many ways a better ideological fit for Tusk, who, like PJN, tries to project a pro-business image on the economy along with the conservative social values.
PJN wants to raise the retirement age gradually to 67 for both men and women from 65 and 60 respectively now, Kluzik-Rostkowska said.
Occupational groups such as policemen, miners and teachers should have to work longer to enjoy special pension privileges and wealthy farmers should pay the same taxes and social insurance payments as most other citizens, she said.
Farmers currently pay lower taxes and social insurance payments that are not linked to their actual earnings.
PJN also favours a flat income tax and, a standard value-added tax at 19 percent -- it now ranges from seven to 23 percent -- and accelerated privatisations, with the state keeping a controlling stake only in six key energy companies.
Siding with liberal economists against Tusk on the most contentious issue in Polish politics today, Kluzik-Rostkowska said the 18 PJN deputies in the 460-strong parliament would oppose government plans to overhaul Poland's pension system.
The bill, which aims to reduce Poland's debt load, would cut Poles' mandatory cash contributions to private pension funds and keep more money in the state-run system.
"This measure is draining money from the stock market. It also creates a dangerous precedent and hurts citizens' confidence in the state in general," said Kluzik-Rostkowska. (Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Gareth Jones, editing by Mark Heinrich)