Telekom Austria CEO casts doubt on '09 goals-paper

VIENNA, June 30 (Reuters) - Telekom Austria (TELA.VI) faces a "great challenge" to meet its financial goals for 2009, and if business worsens in eastern Europe it may have to review them, its chief executive was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Hannes Ametsreiter told Austrian daily newspaper WirtschaftsBlatt in an interview that the company would cut costs to counter the impact of the economic crisis.

Telekom Austria has forecast slightly lower revenue this year and stable core earnings of 1.9 billion euros ($2.7 billion). Asked whether this guidance was reachable, Ametsreiter said: "This will be a great challenge."

"We believe that it is still doable, even though we feel the crisis, in particular in eastern Europe," he said. "If this is going to get worse, we'll have to reconsider the forecast."

Telekom Austria has mobile phone operations in Bulgaria, Belarus and the former Yugoslavia.

(Reporting by Boris Groendahl; editing by John Stonestreet)