* President asks centre-right parties to form cabinet
* Centre-right conclude coalition agreement
* Fico gives up mandate, will resign
* Coalition unclear on EU aid fund, budget gap jumps
(Adds coalition deal, Radicova quote)
By Martin Santa
BRATISLAVA, June 23 (Reuters) - Slovakia's president asked centre-right leader Iveta Radicova on Wednesday to form a government after the ruling leftists gave up their attempt to stay in power for another four-year term.
The new government will be formed by four centre-right parties that have pledged to cut the budget deficit and improve relations with Hungary, strained under the centre-left cabinet of Robert Fico that included anti-Hungarian nationalists.
The centre-right parties said they had forged a framework deal on a programme after 10-hour talks, but failed to dispel uncertainty over their willingness to back a 750-billion-euro safety net for the euro zone. [
]President Ivan Gasparovic said he was giving Radicova, head of the biggest centre-right party, the Christian Democrat Union (SDKU), until the first session of parliament on July 8 to present him a cabinet that would win parliamentary backing.
"I handed her a mandate in which I am asking her to try to form a new government," he said.
Radicova, 53, is a sociology professor and was a candidate in the 2009 presidential election, which she lost to Gasparovic.
The economy is expected to grow by over 3 percent this year after a 4.7 percent slump in 2009, but unemployment remains above 12 percent and the recovery is highly dependent on exports, hostage to demand elsewhere in the euro zone.
Fico's leftist SMER party won the most votes in the June 12 election but failed to find coalition partners. He said he planned to resign after the initial parliament session.
"We have to respect the election results. Slovakia will get a wide (centre-right) coalition," Fico said.
The Christian Democratic Union (SDKU), Christian Democrats (KDH), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and mostly ethnic Hungarian Most-Hid concluded talks on forming a government coalition on Wednesday afternoon [
]."We have agreed the wording of the coalition agreement," Radicova told reporters after the meeting.
EU FUND, BUDGET
The emerging coalition has fudged whether it will support the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Participating in any aid is highly unpopular in a country where economic output is 72 percent of the EU average, and which only joined the euro zone last year.
Fico's outgoing leftist cabinet supported the EFSF, agreed last month to help countries facing a debt crisis, but the centre-right parties have not commented on the plan and opposed backing an earlier aid package for Greece. [
]Slovak and EU officials have said the Slovak signature was necessary to launch the EFSF programme, even if Slovakia later decides not to contribute.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday it ought to be enough that EU finance ministers have signed the deal. [
]The outgoing government also released an update to the fiscal outlook on Wednesday, showing the budget deficit would jump to 7 percent of gross domestic product versus the planned 5.5 percent, confirming opposition and analysts' earlier concerns about the fiscal position. [
]Slovakia has a public debt load of 35.7 percent of gross domestic product. That is only half the EU average but it has been rising rapidly. (Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Paul Taylor)