MADRID, May 13 (Reuters) - The leader of Spain's largest union ruled out on Thursday a general strike before meeting the prime minister to discuss public wage cuts as part of a package to cut its deficit back to EU guidelines and appease markets.
Unions mooted demonstrations on Tuesday after Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero told parliament the government planned to cut civil service wages by 5 percent this year and freeze them in 2011.
"It (a general strike) is the last thing this country needs at a time like this," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, the general secretary of Comisiones Obreras, told private broadcaster Punto Radio.
"Decisions that serious, in case they are taken, need to be carefully thought over," Toxo added.
Representatives from several unions were due to meet Zapatero at 1130 GMT.
Toxo said he would wait until the cabinet gave more details of the cuts at a weekly meeting on Friday.
"People may take account of the fact that proposals could have another outcome," he said.
The Madrid bourse was meanwhile down 1.8 percent <.IBEX> amid market concern over possible delays by the government in applying the proposed austerity measures.
"Zapatero's unveiling measures was fine, but the actual situation in pain is still difficult and foreign investors don't want to know about us, and hedge funds are very active," a trader said.
"What the market demands is that these measures take effect forthwith," she added.
For a factbox on Spain's public sector workforce, click on [ID:nLDE64C0JS]
For Spanish media comment on government austerity measures, click on [ID:nLDE64C0H5] (Reporting by Clara Vilar and Jesus Aguado; Writing by Martin Roberts)