Polish PM revives refugee row before Berlin visit

BERLIN, Oct 29 (Reuters) Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has revived a debate over the plight of post-war German refugees, stoking tensions with Berlin before a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Kaczynski's remarks, released ahead of publication in the top-selling daily Bild tomorrow contrasted with the conciliatory tone Merkel struck in a video podcast yesterday.

when she played up the neighbouring countries' common interests.

The two leaders meet in Berlin tomorrow after a period of strained relations following the August opening in Berlin of an exhibition exploring the fate of Germans displaced from modern western Poland at the end of World War Two.

Some 12 million ethnic Germans were displaced or forcibly evicted from what is now Poland and the former Czechoslovakia after World War Two.

Many ended up in southern Germany, where they represent a significant political lobby with close ties to Merkel's conservatives. Many want compensation for property they lost.

''These people question the possession of property in Poland -- that concerns 34 per cent of Poland's surface area! And the German state does nothing against that. It is high time to bring an end to this nonsense,'' Kaczynski told Bild.

''Germany should, in the framework of an international accord, once and for all abandon all pretensions. In practice, that would be no problem. It is just a question of political will,'' he added.

PIPELINE ROW Kaczynski also took aim at plans for a Russian-German gas pipeline which bypasses Poland, and which a Polish minister earlier this year compared to the pre-war pact between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin that led to the carve-up of Poland.

''With the decision to build this pipeline, the turbulence began in German-Polish relations,'' he said.

Yesterday, Merkel acknowledged the suffering Germany inflicted on Poland during World War Two, and stressed the role the neighbours can play in the European Union, whose rotating presidency Berlin assumes for six months from January 1.

Diplomats say Kaczynski's visit follows US pressure on Warsaw to mend fences with Germany. The US administration fears Warsaw's uneasy ties with Berlin will ultimately hurt Washington's ability to influence European policy.

''We are both members of the EU. Therefore, I hope our relationship develops in a positive direction,'' Kaczynski told Bild. ''If there are sometimes problems -- well, they arise in the best of families, don't they?'' In Warsaw, Kaczynski told a briefing ahead of the meeting with Merkel: ''I believe Poland's energy security will be the most important problem raised during that discussion, although the question cannot be reduced to a single pipeline alone.'' REUTERS PB VC2128