UPDATE 1-Slovak PM threatens to break up ruling coalition

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Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened on Tuesday to scrap an agreement that holds together Slovakia's three-party coalition government if a junior partner did not cooperate in a row over disputed land transfers.

Fico would lose his parliamentary majority if he in effect threw the centre-left Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party out of the coalition led by his Smer party, and this could bring down the government.

The coalition row, over land deals signed by an HDZS nominee, erupted as Slovakia tries to win support in the European Union to adopt the euro in 2009. Parliament is also due to start debating the draft 2008 state budget in a few days.

"The situation in the ruling coalition is serious...," Fico's office said in a statement after Smer's leaders met. "Smer is not interested in being in a ruling coalition that silently tolerated such dealings with land."

Fico did not elaborate further. Slovak media quoted unnamed Smer sources as saying Fico had demanded the dismissal of Agriculture Minister Miroslav Jurena, a senior HZDS official. (Reporting by Peter Laca; Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Keywords: SLOVAKIA COALITION/

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]