Popular says 1.3 bln euro provisions ample-report

MADRID, July 7 (Reuters) - Spain's Banco Popular (POP.MC) will use some of its 1.3 billion euros ($1.82 billion) in special provisions this year but they are easily sufficient to weather the crisis, the bank's head of finance said.

"Certainly we will use some of it, but we are going to have more than enough," Jacobo Gonzalez Robatto said in an interview with financial daily El Economista published on Tuesday.

"In the first quarter we will use the generic (provisions), in the second quarter some of them too, but probably less because we want them to last through the whole crisis," he said.

Banks are required by the Bank of Spain to set aside the provisions in case of economic downturns.

The bank would look at good acquisition opportunities in the United States but would be wary of many of the banks it could buy, Gonzalez Robatto said.

"The Federal Reserve is like a hospital of banks, but they are entities with very serious restructuring needs, banks which are basically property loans which means getting into that now is very risky and Popular is very conservative," he said. ($1=.7163 Euro) (Reporting by Sarah Morris; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)