Poland, Germany seek to mend ties amid differences

BERLIN, Oct 30 (Reuters) Polish and German leaders sought to draw a line today under a recent downturn in relations, but disagreements remained over a controversial gas pipeline and over German compensation claims dating from World War Two.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski condemned efforts by some Germans to obtain redress for property lost after the war and urged Berlin to distance itself from them through an international accord.

After meeting Kaczynski in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected that option at a joint news conference where both leaders tried to stress areas of agreement.

''I don't view such a formal accord as the right solution,'' Merkel said. ''We believe this issue has already been taken care of through the clear stance of the German government not to support these demands.'' While welcoming that position, Kaczynski responded that ''additional solutions'' were necessary.

Merkel came to office last November vowing to mend ties with Poland, which had grown fraught under her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder who built up a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But relations between the neighbours have worsened further under Kaczynski and his twin brother Lech, Poland's president, who criticised Germany during their election campaign last year.

This summer Lech Kaczynski abruptly pulled out of a summit meeting with Merkel and French President Jacques Chirac because, diplomats said, he was furious over a German newspaper article that likened him and his brother to potatoes.

More recently, an exhibition in Berlin on the fate of displaced people after the war was condemned in Poland as an attempt by Germans to portray themselves as victims of a conflict they started.

After Germany lost the war, the borders of Poland were moved to the west, forcing out millions of Germans.

PIPELINE PROBLEMS At today's news conference, Jaroslaw Kaczynski expressed lingering unease over a German-Russian natural gas pipeline that Warsaw has likened to a 1939 pact between Hitler and Stalin carving up Poland.

The pipeline, launched by Schroeder and Putin, will carry Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland.

''There could be a situation, although today I am more convinced than before that it may not materialise, in which taps for Poland could be shut,'' Kaczynski said. ''This would be for us a most difficult situation, hitting our most fundamental interests.'' Diplomats say Kaczynski's visit follows U S pressure on Warsaw to mend fences with Germany. Washington fears Poland's uneasy ties with Berlin will ultimately hurt U S ability to influence European policy.

Germany takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union in January and Merkel is keen to win Polish backing for its plans to revive the stalled European constitution.

REUTERS SP BS1944