Polish opposition wants to block railways' sale of utility arm

WARSAW, July 28 (Reuters) - Poland's main opposition party, a leader in pre-election polls, wants to block the already agreed 2-billion zloty ($537.1 million) sale of Polish state-run railways PKP's utility arm to global private equity fund CVC (Taiwan OTC: 4744.TWO - news) .

Mariusz Blaszczak, head of the parliamentary club at the conservative opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), told public radio on Tuesday the sale of PKP Energetyka was a threat to Poland's safety.

"We want to block it," Blaszczak said. "This Luxembourg-based fund for instance could sell PKP Energetyka to (Russian energy giant) Gazprom and then we'd have (Russian President) Vladimir Putin governing PKP Energetyka."

"A preliminary deal was signed, there's no dot over an 'i' yet and we think it should be put on hold," he added.

PKP Energetyka is Poland's No.5 power company by the amount of energy sold and the only Polish energy firm with a country-wide distribution network.

Last week, CVC agreed to buy the business for 1.41 billion zlotys excluding debt, or 1.97 billion zlotys with the debt. PKP, which hoped to rid itself of debt thanks to the sale, expects to close the deal this quarter.

PiS leads opinion polls, ahead of the Civic Platform (PO), which has ruled for almost eight years. The party is basing its stance among others on reluctance towards any privatisation and fear of Poland's energy dependence on Russia.

Poland holds parliamentary election in October. ($1 = 3.7240 zlotys) (Reporting by Adrian Krajewski, editing by Louise Heavens)