Warsaw - Poland plans to strengthen its mission in Afghanistan and create a new "strategic reserve" force ready for deployment there at anytime, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said on Wednesday.

The government could boost Poland's contingent in Afghanistan in April or May, Klich said, and is already working on a proposal for the president. Klich said it will be discussed how many troops will be added, with the president having the final word.

Warsaw - Thousands of Hasidic Jews will on Tuesday pray at the grave in Poland of one of the faith's most influential rabbis, marking the 223 anniversary of his death.

Rabbi Elimelech Weisblum's grave in southeastern Poland will see Jews from across the world come to pray, dance and sing at one of the most significant places in the Hasidic faith.

The anniversary is "classically Jewish - chaotic," Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Warsaw - A growing number of Poles now support building a civil nuclear reactor in their country, according to an opinion poll in the daily Rzeczpospolita on Monday.

Some 42 per cent are opposed to the project, compared to 56 per cent last year against nuclear energy, said the survey of 1,000 people.

The gradual shift in opinion comes as Poland realizes how dependent its is on Russia for energy - and susceptible to another crisis, sociologist Barbara Fedzyszak-Radziejowska said.

Minsk - Warsaw warned Belarusian authoritarian leader Aleksander Lukashenko on Monday to allow ethnic Poles in the former Soviet republic the right of assembly, or face further isolation.

"Aleksander Lukashenko cannot be invited to the European Union summit in Prague, unless he respects the rights of the Polish minority in his country," according to a Polish government letter made public by ethnic Polish activists in Belarus.

Opposition news reports identified Anzhelika Boris, head of the Union of Poles of Belarus, as the person making the letter public.

Warsaw  - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will meet Monday with the Polish president for talks expected to concern the run-up to Poland's holding of European Parliament elections, local media reported.

Barroso will meet with Polish President Lech Kaczynski on the country's general political and economic situation before the elections, a European Commission spokesperson told Polish Radio.