"The speculations...refer not to the hypothetical possibility of Slovenia having to request bailout, they refer to the somewhat uncertain situation in the banking sector, which is different," he told local broadcaster RTS during a visit to Maribor.

By adopting the austerity law, Slovenia "temporarily averted the danger of having to ask for international financial assistance from the IMF or European bailout mechanisms," he he told another local station, TV Maribor.

But Janša also suggested Slovenia had a credibility problem. "In recent years Slovenia promised Europe many things, but we didn't deliver...The partners are saying: you say you will do it, but you don't," according to Janša.

Slovenia has won back some of the credibility with the austerity law, and some with the promise to insert the golden fiscal rule into the Constitution, said Janša, but he noted that golden rule hinges on the votes of the opposition, which has been recalcitrant.

"July will be a test of our credibility: if the opposition does not make good on its promise - which some have suggested - it will take responsibility for that," he said.

Turning to the banking sector - the state just recently recapitalised the country's no.1 bank, NLB - Janša said the government did not know what the situation at the bank exactly was.

"We were promised the results of due diligence at the end of May, it is early July now and we still don't know them".

Janša hopes NLB will turn out to be in better shape than media reports suggest, but "if you don't know the causes of the disease, you cannot prescribe a treatment.