Romanian govt faces confidence vote over austerity

* Government plans spending cuts to boost investor sentiment

* Should survive Tuesday vote, but result could be tight

* Markets closely watching result and margin of victory

BUCHAREST, June 15 (Reuters) - Romania's centrist coalition government looks likely to defeat a no-confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday over planned deep spending cuts, giving it greater scope to carry out reforms.

The EU's second-poorest member has pledged to reform its mammoth, highly-unionised public sector, but social unrest is casting doubts over its austerity drive and raising the spectre of Greek-style debt woes in the country of 22 million.

Investors are nervous about the debt and deficit position of emerging European economies like Romania after Hungarian assets slumped in early June on comments from officials that it might suffer a crisis similar to Greece's.

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc should manage to pull together enough support from independent deputies to survive and secure a vital 20 billion euro international aid package for the recession-hit economy, led by the International Monetary Fund.

Unions are hoping up to a million Romanians will support a planned one-day general strike on the day of the vote in an attempt to pressure deputies, though analysts say the industrial action will probably not be on such a large scale.

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Boc's centre-right coalition needs 236 votes to survive the vote, expected to take place in the early afternoon after a debate in parliament which starts at 0700 GMT.

If the victory margin is tight, it would substantially weaken the government's mandate to pursue reforms and likely increase risk aversion towards Romania. [ID:nLDE65623Q]

A defeat would tip Romania into a fresh political crisis and slam asset prices, but looks unlikely as parliamentarians fear the consequences would be far worse than the spending cuts.

Uncertainty over Romania's ability to enforce austerity measures, aimed at capping the budget deficit at 6.8 percent of GDP this year, has pushed yields on the country's debt higher in recent weeks. [ID:nLDE65D0NR]

Assuming the no-confidence motion is defeated, the government's proposed cuts of 25 percent in public sector wages and 15 percent in pensions could still be derailed.

Romania's powerful trade unions could ratchet up pressure by extending strike action beyond one day and the spending cuts could be blocked by legal challenges at the constitutional court. (Reporting by Sam Cage; editing by Andrew Roche)