* Slovak government to decide on EFSF on Thursday
* Coalition leaders meet on Wednesday to debate the issue
* Euro area partners ask Slovaks to honour commitments
(Adds Radicova, Miklos quotes, background)
BRATISLAVA, July 14 (Reuters) - Slovakia postponed until
Thursday a decision on signing the euro zone's emergency loan
facility that would oblige it to help indebted euro zone
partners, the government said on Wednesday.
Slovakia, where refusal to bail out richer euro zone members
played prominently in campaigning ahead of an election last
month, has been holding up the EU's 750-billion-euro ($953
billion) EFSF scheme designed to help countries in trouble.
The new government led by Iveta Radicova has been refusing
to take part in a separate aid plan for Greece.
It has also been putting off signing up to the EFSF,
although it has said it would not block the EU and is widely
expected to eventually give in.
The government will hold a meeting on Thursday to debate the
European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and a bilateral
loan to Greece, worth around 800 million euros.
"There will be a coalition meeting tonight to debate this
issue," Radicova told reporters after the government meeting,
adding the cabinet would meet again on the issue at 0800 GMT on
Thursday.
Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, a fiscal hawk, said this
week's negotiations with his EU counterparts in Brussels on
Slovakia's position were not easy. The previous government led
by Robert Fico supported the aid schemes.
"Today, we are in a situation when we choose only among bad
solutions," Miklos told reporters.
Slovakia, the euro zone's poorest member, joined the single
currency in 2009. The euro zone's debt crisis and demands to
chip in to bail out richer members was far from what the Slovaks
expected from membership.
Miklos said he thought it was wrong that a country with
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of just 72 percent of
the EU's average be expected to help richer countries.
The Slovak minimum monthly wage is 308 euros and the average
is 725 euros, which is below even the minimum legal Greek wage
of 863 euros. Opinion polls have shown two-thirds of Slovaks are
against extending aid.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said
he expected Bratislava to sign the EFSF very soon, while
Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker expected Slovaks to sign
the framework agreement (on the EFSF) and take on board all the
commitments made by the previous cabinet.
If Bratislava signs off on the EFSF vehicle, it can move
ahead. However the Slovak parliament must vote on Slovak
participation worth 4.5 billion euro in guarantees.
(Reporting by Martin Santa; editing by Myra MacDonald)
