Warsaw  - President Lech Kaczynski was slated to meet with heads of three Baltic states to work out a common stance on Georgia for an upcoming European Union summit, his chancellery told Radio ZET on Thursday.

"There's an expectation from the Baltic states that the president in Brussels will present a common stance of the three states - the three Baltic states and Poland," said Piotr Kownacki, vice-chief of the president's chancellery.

Kaczynski will meet with his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia either on Thursday or Monday. He could fly Thursday to Vilnius or another Baltic capital, Kownacki said, or meet the heads of state in Brussels on Monday before the summit.

Warsaw  - Poland wants "normal" relations with its eastern neighbour Russia, despite Moscow's anger over a planned US missile defence system to be located in the country, the Polish foreign minister said on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish radio that "as a gesture" he had recommended that the Russians be invited to inspect the bases to be used in the proposed missile defence system.

The US and Poland signed an agreement in Warsaw on Wednesday for the construction of ten missile interceptor sites in the north of the country, as part of a system designed to defend Europe and the US against intercontinental missile attacks.

Warsaw - Three Polish soldiers were killed in a mine explosion in Afghanistan, a military spokesman told Polish television TVN24 on Wednesday.