Warsaw- Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed an act cutting pensions to former communist security services and military council members, his website announced on Friday.

The law, passed by parliament last month, will take effect in 2010. It will strip pensions to former security service members and those of the Military Council of National Salvation (WRON) who imposed martial law in 1981.

The announcement comes on the anniversary of Poland's Round Table talks, when communist officials in 1989 first sat down with Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement to negotiate on power-sharing.

The talks paved the way to an independent Poland, and secured free elections in the newly-created Senate and part of Parliament.

In Warsaw on Friday, the original round table was brought out from display in the presidential palace to host a debate among historians. The talks launched at 2:23: the same time when the banned trade union first began negotiations with government 20 years ago. (dpa)