Warsaw  - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday named three new ministers to replace those who resigned in a gambling lobby scandal that has cast a shadow over his Civic Platform party a year before the presidential election.

Krzysztof Kwiatkowski will now head the justice ministry, where he was formerly a deputy minister. He replaces Andrzej Czuma, who was accused of coming too quickly to the defence of the politicians accused in the lobbying scandal.

Adam Giersz is Tusk's pick to lead the sports ministry. A former deputy sports minister, he replaces Miroslaw Drzewiecki. The sports ministry is making plans for the Euro
2012 football championships, which Poland is co-hosting with Ukraine.

The new internal affairs minister will be Jerzy Miller, the current head of the Opole province, southern Poland. Miller replaces Grzegorz Schetyna.

A recent report in the daily Polska said that Tusk had told Civic Platform members that he would not run for president, but politicians close to Tusk said that the prime minster's reservations about seeking the country's top post were not new.

Other politicians said Tusk's final decision would depend on findings from a commission that will probe the gambling scandal.

Tusk last week dismissed the head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and accepted resignations from the justice minister, the deputy economy minister and the deputy prime minister, who also headed the Ministry of the Interior, in a sweeping move to clean up his party's image.

The gambling scandal had previously led to the sports minister's resignation and the dismissal of the Civic Platform head.

The affair erupted after a report in a Polish daily that alleged both politicians had lobbied on behalf of the gambling industry to block provisions to a bill that called for additional taxes from gambling companies.(dpa)