Poland will not adopt the euro before 2010, Polish Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska says in an interview published in the liberal daily, Rzeczpospolita.

"Poland cannot enter the eurozone before 2010", Gilowska told the paper. "As an economist, I have always felt that 2011 is an achievable deadline," she said.

"But as finance minister I have to be wary of putting forward a date because that would mean a commitment on the part of the Polish government. And as things stand today, we cannot make a commitment," she said.

On the other hand, "we intend to fulfill all the convergence criteria by 2009," said Gilowska. Poland is the sole new EU member state not to have set a date for joining the euro.