Warsaw - Poland is to exhume the remains of former premier Wladyslaw Sikorski to investigate the circumstances of his death during the Second World War, reports said Saturday.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski told the Tygodnik Powszechny newspaper Saturday that the exhumation would help shed light on the tragic circumstances of Sikorski's death.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also supports the idea, his spokeswoman said.

The Warsaw Historical Society appealed to the Archbishop of Krakow to open the crypt in the city's Wawel Castle, but he made the decision dependent on the agreement of the state.

Sikorski led the Polish government in exile in Paris and later London after the country was occupied by Germany in September 1939. He died in July 1943 after his plane crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from a British base at Gibraltar.

Some Polish researchers believe he was assassinated because he would have hindered wartime cooperation between Britain and the Soviet Union. (dpa)