Dispute over UN seat

Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk said as long as Germany ignores Polish interests his party - and the government - will block its United Nations bid.

"The Germans have to understand that in Poland soon there will be a new government, which will not for some inconceivable reason support German interests as long as the Germans will not support our interests," said Tusk.

Germany backed Poland's European Union ambitions, but relations between the biggest EU nation and its largest newcomer have cooled because of conflicts over the Iraq war, the European constitution, and the bloc's budget.

Poles have also watched with growing unease Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's cordial relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, fearing Berlin would shape EU relations with Moscow while ignoring Poland's concerns.

 Last week Germany signed a deal with Russia to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea despite protests from Poland and the Baltic states, which fear it will make them more dependent on Moscow's energy supplies.

The issue has become a hot topic in the Polish election campaign, with all parties criticizing Schroeder for failing to consult its new EU partners.

 Tusk's likely government allies, the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) said Schroeder was giving all EU newcomers a lesson in how to put national interest over the wider European community.

"There isn't yet such a thing as a European identity and those events show that," PiS' candidate for president, Lech Kaczyński, said.

Germany, the third largest contributor to the United Nations, hopes to gain the backing of the five permanent members of the Security Council, along with two-thirds of the 191-nation UN General Assembly, to win a permanent seat. (Reuters)