* Priority now is growth, not joining euro -incoming Min
* Says euro zone was 'close to collapse', rules have changed
* Sees further euro zone woes in next 18-24 months
BUDAPEST, May 13 (Reuters) - The euro zone is in turmoil and Hungary's incoming government will focus economic policy this year and next on promoting growth rather than on joining the single currency, economy minister designate Gyorgy Matolcsy said on Thursday.
Prior to last weekend's $1 trillion rescue deal, "the euro zone reached the brink of collapse," Matolcsy, who takes over the post later this month, told news portal fn.hu.
Amid signs of waning enthusiasm for the single currency in several euro candidate countries, he said the new government "will pursue an economic policy whose main peg is not the euro as the rules of the game have changed ...
"The first thing here is that we should have growth again."
Matolcsy said global policymakers had been wise to hammer out a rescue deal for the euro zone when they did, because "there is terribly big trouble (there)".
He said further crises, both large and small, were likely to affect the single currency area in the next 18-24 months.
Estonia remains on track to adopt the euro next year after winning European Commission backing for its bid on Wednesday.
But Poland's finance minister said Warsaw was in no rush to join the bloc, which needed time to "refurbish" after the Greek woes, and his Icelandic counterpart told Reuters on Wednesday that domestic opposition to EU membership was growing. [ID:nLDE64B2DF]
The euro fell to a one-week low on Thursday, as looming fiscal tightening in the euro zone outweighed relief at the aid package, which had eased investor worries a Greek sovereign debt crisis would spread. [ID:nLDE64C0PK]
STABLE FORINT
Matolcsy, whose Fidesz party secured a two-thirds parliamentary majority in April's elections, said a week ago the incoming government should be able to set a target date for adopting the euro by the end of 2011. [ID:nLDE6420XT]
He told fn.hu on Thursday the country should go its own way this year and next to create a credible and stable economy by focusing on reviving growth.
Fidesz has promised deep tax cuts to create jobs and help economic growth, and said it would seek agreement with international lenders including the IMF and the EU to run a higher 2010 budget deficit than the outgoing Socialist government had targeted.
Matolcsy reiterated in the interview that the new government wanted to cut the bloated public sector in the next four years, but said firing a large number of state employees in its first year would make no sense.
"Sacking people in the crisis would be a very stupid thing; in that moment consumption and the revenue of the (state) budget would fall," he said.
He said the government did not have an exchange rate target, but the economy needed a stable forint
"Movements of a few percent in the exchange rate can be allowed, but 15-20-30 forint jumps not," he said.
He reiterated a call for the central bank's rate setting Monetary Council to resign because the bank had committed policy mistakes in recent years. [ID:nLDE64A0D5]
"I will cooperate with the central bank's governor, the Monetary Council, but in a professional respect I think it would be better... if they quit," he said.
The heads of financial markets regulator PSZAF and tax authority APEH should also stand down, he said.
(Reporting by Sandor Peto; editing by John Stonestreet)