Warsaw - The Polish government of Premier Donald Tusk pushed through a controversial pension reform law in parliament Friday over the opposition of President Lech Kaczynski.

Using the votes of the governing parites of the PO and PSL and with the support of the leftist opposition SLD, Tusk passed the law with 285 votes, 8 more than the three-fifths supported needed to overcame a presidential veto.

The bill was opposed by 160 deputies, chiefly from the nationalist- conservative PiS led by the president's twin brother, Jaroslav Kacyznski.

With the Sejm's approval, the new pension system law can take effect on January 1.

Tusk defended the new schem was a "modern and just system" and with a jab at his political foe Kaczynski he praised the parliamentary vote result as a lesson to all those who have "made the word 'no' into a principle of their politics."

But Tusk said he feared that the president would continue to "systematically" use his veto powers against the government's policies. (dpa)