Tusk says market trust in Poland higher, may visit London

WARSAW (Reuters) - Market confidence has increased in Poland following the election of its new government, the prime minister said on Wednesday, adding that he had discussed with his British counterpart Rishi Sunak a possible trip to London.

Poland's zloty has gained around 4% versus the euro since a broad pro-European Union coalition won a majority in an October election.

The country's budget is under strain, however, from costly legacy items as well as expensive campaign promises, and Warsaw plans to do more to tap international markets to cover its borrowing needs.

"It seems that the change that took place in Poland on Oct. 15 automatically increased the level of trust from one day to the next," Donald Tusk told a news conference. "I have only seen good reactions and full of trust in our intentions."

He said that he had had preliminary talks with Rishi Sunak about a possible visit to Britain and about the UK prime minister visiting Poland.

Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said in December that higher borrowing needs would be financed by debt and that a larger share of this may go to foreign investors than in previous years.

However, Tusk said the government would try to gradually lower Poland's debt.

"We will use various forms to convince people to follow our strategy of a slow, flexible exit from the obviously too high... public debt," he said "We need a consistent, but a long and peaceful march."

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Karol Badohal; Writing by Alan Charlish and Anna Koper; Editing by Alison Williams and Barbara Lewis)