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* Pumping money into system won't solve debt crisis-Miklos
* Structural reforms in western Europe a must
* EFSF, ESM alone not a solution for current euro troubles
* Markets calculate rationally that bailouts may continue
By Martin Santa
BRATISLAVA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Financial markets are behaving rationally in pricing in a risk that more euro zone economies may need bailouts, Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said on Thursday, calling for greater budget discipline in the bloc.
In an interview, Miklos told Reuters the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and European Stability Mechanism (ESM) alone would not solve the euro zone's government debt problems and said it was useless to blame the crisis on speculators.
Miklos, an advocate of fiscal discipline in Slovakia's right-wing cabinet, rejected the idea that financial markets were acting irrationally and exacerbating the crisis that has forced Greece and Ireland to take tens of billions of euros in emergency loans.
"To blame speculators (because) a crisis has emerged is like blaming gravity for a plane crash," Miklos said.
"Markets are calculating rationally, they price in that bailouts will continue."
Slovakia, a central European country which joined the euro zone as its poorest member last year, has already made a mark as a dissenter, supporting tough policies for countries with big deficits.
It refused to take part in the rescue of Greece, in part because of popular resistance to bailing out a country where wages are much higher than in Slovakia.
BOND-BUYING 'RISK'
Miklos said that the European Central Bank's bond-buying programme was a clear breach of its principles, delaying a market clean up and restoration of balance.
"To stop an expansive monetary policy and the pumping of more money into the economy is part of the solution on how to clean up markets and to restore balance," he said. "If not, there is a risk the problems will only balloon."
The ECB says it withdraws funds from the market to offset any money it injects by buying bonds, thus differentiating its operations from the U.S. policy of quantitative easing which is designed specifically to pump extra money into the economy.
Markets are already discounting an eventual rescue of Portugal although the government in Lisbon denies, as Irish leaders initially did, that the country needs outside aid.
While a Portuguese rescue could be covered from the EFSF, assistance for its neighbour Spain would sorely test EU resources, raise deeper questions about the integrity of the currency area and possibly spread contagion beyond Europe.
Miklos said he was "feeling pressure towards a fiscal union" among euro zone members, although he could not imagine one actually existing.
Slovak public debt stood at 35.4 percent of gross domestic product GDP at the end of last year, far below the EU average -- a policy that investors have rewarded. The market premium for holding Slovak 10-year bonds rather than euro zone benchmark German Bunds was 146.7 basis points on Thursday, compared with Portugal's extra cost of 352.9 basis points.
Miklos said instead of printing money, western Europe must reform pensions and health care to curb costs.
Slovaks plan to cut the public deficit to 4.9 percent of the GDP from 7.84 percent seen in 2010, with help of tax hikes and lower state spending.
(Editing by Patrick Graham/Ruth Pitchford)