INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Hopes seem to be fading for Polish companies to win contracts to help reconstruct Iraq, said ex-finance minister Marek Belka. So far, the only companies likely to secure contracts are Rafineria Gdańska, PGNiG and oil producer Petrobaltic.

Defense minister Jerzy Szmajdziński pointed out that the country must deploy a stabilization force of 1,500 soldiers to cover its sector of Iraq between Baghdad and Basra. An international conference will be held in Warsaw at the end of the week to determine which other countries will assist Poland in its peacekeeping efforts.

The country's stabilization force in Iraq will cost more than €79 million ($90 million). The U.S. has agreed to pay two-thirds of the cost.

President Aleksander Kwaśniewski told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that he supported a strong EU and that the body could one day be as powerful as the U.S.