LJUBLJANA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Slovenia will ban the registration of new cars running on petrol or diesel fuel from 2030, the government said on Thursday.

It also issued a draft development strategy under which the country plans to cut public debt to 60 percent of GDP, the maximum level allowed for European Union members, by 2030.

“New registration (from 2030) will only be possible for cars with CO2 emissions of less than 50 grams per kilometer,” a government statement said, adding that only electric and plug-in hybrid cars fulfill such criteria at present.

It said that from 2025 new registrations will only be possible for cars that emit less than 100 grams of CO2 per kilometer, which should enable Slovenia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9 percent from 2020 to 2030.

The government of the small southeast European country said it aimed for at least 17 percent of personal cars in 2030 to be electric and plug-in hybrid models. At present they are less than less than 0.1 percent of the total.

The planned ban on petrol and diesel cars follows similar moves by Britain in France targeted to take effect by 2040. The French capital Paris said earlier on Thursday it would ban such cars in the city by 2030.

According to the Slovenian government’s draft strategy, the country should in 2030 reach the EU average GDP per capita in purchasing power, up from 83 percent of that level last year.

Slovenia’s public debt has risen sharply over the past years as the country only narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013. Last year it fell for the first time in eight years and the government plans to reduce it to below 77 percent of GDP this year.