Warsaw - Polish airline LOT could boost its ties with German carrier Lufthansa after ending the year up to 200 million zlotys (70 million dollars) in the red, Puls Biznesu reported on Thursday.

"The sector is plunging into a recession. Small carriers are feeling it the most. Acquisitions are slowly marginalizing the role of alliances," the head of PLL LOT, Dariusz Nowak, told the daily.

Nowak said Lufthansa is now the most active, and cited its interest in privatizing SAS Scandinavian Airlines.

Gdansk  - Tourists visiting Poland's Baltic coast often snap photos at the gates of Gdansk's shipyard, famous as the site where Lech Walesa founded the Solidarity trade union and helped topple the country's communist regime.

Today the gates are adorned with plastic flowers, posters of John Paul II and flags bearing the red "Solidarnosc" logo. A kiosk nearby sells postcards of the iconic union leader and t-shirts saying, "God, Honor, Nation."

But past the gates, inside the vast industrial complex of workshops and storehouses, much has remained the same since the 1980s: From the grimy rotary phones in the lobby to the rusty equipment that slows production and forces Polish workers to Norway for better pay.

Warsaw - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk appealed to the opposition Wednesday to work towards a change in the constitution that would enable Poland to enter the eurozone by 2012.

Poland would need to alter its constitution to allow the European Central Bank to be a monetary authority in the country. Currently the constitution gives the National Bank sole power to distribute money

Tusk has been working to sway Poland's euro-sceptic Law and Justice party, whose support is needed to change the constitution.

Warsaw - Former head of the Polish football federation (PZPN) Michal Listkiewicz took the stand on Tuesday as a witness in an ongoing investigation into corruption in the sport.

Listkiewicz said he'd answered "honestly" after about an hour on the stand in a Wroclaw court. He did not give details about the proceedings.

"I answered all the questions honestly and frankly, because I'm truthful," Listkiewicz said.

The Polish football federation voted in Grzegorz Lato in October as its new head, as Listkiewicz stepped down amid the investigation.

Warsaw - Polish President Lech Kaczynski vetoed a bill on Monday that would cut early retirement for 750,000 people amid pressure from trade unions.

The lower house of parliament approved the bill last month, which would reduce the number of people eligible for early pensions from more than 1 million to some 250,000.

"On the basis of arbitrary criteria ... for some it gives early pensions while not for others," Kaczynski said, calling the bill "unjust."

Poznan, Poland  - Negotiators at UN climate talks were poised Friday to unlock a 60-million-dollar fund to help poor countries combat effects of global warming such as rising sea levels, participants said.

While money would not be available immediately and details were to be settled later, the deal signalled rare progress as a two-week conference in Poznan, Poland, entered its final hours.

"This could open up a bit more of an empowering process for developing countries," said Kit Vaughan of the Worldwide Fund for Nature.