PARIS (Reuters) - France Telecom (>> FRANCE TELECOM) sees a "calm" year on the acquisition front and does not expect further big disposals after recently selling its Swiss and Austrian units, Chief Executive Stephane Richard told Reuters in an interview.

"The economic and competitive environment does not lend itself to major transactions," Richard said on Wednesday. "We won't rule out looking at opportunities that present themselves, but it will probably be a calm year."

Speaking after France Telecom posted annual results and cut its dividend for 2012 and 2013, Richard said France Telecom needed to be careful to protect its financial solidity and liquidity.

"The priority is to secure cash, especially since the European debt markets have been basically closed for the past six months," he said.

Richard added that the company had mostly completed a review of its portfolio of businesses in the Middle East and Africa, as well as of its enterprise business, but did not expect to make major disposals.

That review comes after a similar move last year that saw France Telecom exit Switzerland and Austria as part of a strategy to leave markets where France Telecom was not the number one or two player.

"Don't forget that Africa and the Middle East will be the growth engine for the company in the future, so the review of our portfolio there will not lead to major exits," he said.

"We may adjust in one country or another but there will not be any big changes in our footprint there."

France Telecom is present in about a dozen African and Middle Eastern markets. It owns Egyptian operator Mobinil and has done deals in recent years to expand in Tunisia, Morocco and Iraq so as to chase growth to offset declines in Europe.

Its major markets in Europe beside France are Spain, Poland and the UK where it operates a 50-50 joint venture called Everything Everywhere with Deutsche Telekom (>> Deutsche Telekom AG).

Speculation has been mounting in the media and among bankers that Deutsche Telekom may be weighing an exit from the UK as it tries to reposition itself after it failed to sell off its U.S. T-Mobile business to AT&T (>> AT&T Inc.).

Richard said France Telecom had had no discussions with Deutsche Telekom and downplayed talk of any change to the joint venture's ownership in the short-term.

"I have not had any contact with our German friends that would signal that they wanted to exit England," he said.

"I don't think such a move is on the agenda, but if our partner did decide to leave, then we would examine what to do."

Asked whether France Telecom would want to buy out its partner, Richard pointed out that such a deal would be very costly given that Everything Everywhere is worth some 15 billion euros ($19.9 billion).

"Making another 7-8 billion euro bet on the English market is not a very realistic option for us, but we would have many other options," he said. "We could find partners or list the company on the public markets."

For its part, Deutsche Telekom has not commented directly on the rumors.

In Spain, Richard said France Telecom would consider acquiring a smaller mobile rival if a long-mooted consolidation took place in the market. But he said that a tie-up with a fixed player or a cable operator was less likely.

(Editing by James Regan)

By Leila Abboud and Gwénaëlle Barzic