Warsaw - Poland's government signalled Friday it wants oil refiner PKN Orlen to focus expansion on the energy sector and shift away from chemicals.

Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad's comments to the Puls Biznesu daily came after PKN Orlen, Central Europe's largest company by sales, named a new chief executive this month after reports of boardroom conflicts.

Grad said while he's not planning to impose a new strategy for the company, he believes it should focus more on the energy sector.

"Orlen's management board must above all decide: to buy chemical group Ciech, or to sell (chemical unit) Anwil," he told the business paper. "A more interesting direction for investment for Orlen could be the energy sector."

Warsaw - Former Polish leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski's plea against charges of communist-era crimes was postponed Thursday when another elderly defendant failed to show at the trial.

Jaruzelski, 85, has reportedly prepared a 200-page defence he plans to read out in the Warsaw court, the stage for Poland's highest-profile effort to bring Soviet-era leaders to justice.

Warsaw - Poland as well as the rest of Europe and the United States have to deal with an increasingly aggressive Russia, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in statements published Thursday in the country's biggest daily.

Poland was a US key ally in the region, Rice said in a statement in the Wyborcza newspaper, and said Russian leaders were currently making bad choices.

Referring to Russia's recent conflict with Georgia, Rice said the Kremlin should respect the sovereignty of its smaller neighbors. Russia's actions, she said, are pushing it toward the path of isolation.

Warsaw- PKN Orlen, Poland's biggest refiner, plans to extract oil and gas in Poland, the Baltic Sea and possibly Ukraine and Africa, the company's new head told the Puls Biznesu business daily Tuesday.

PKN Orlen intends to cooperate with Kuwait Energy Company, and the two companies are working on a project in the Baltic that's "only the beginning" of the partnership, the Dziennik daily reported.

"Orlen, in addition to refining oil" and sales, should take up "seeking and extracting raw energy," chief executive Jacek Krawiec told Dziennik.

Swinoujscie, Poland - German trains began operating on Polish soil on Saturday, reviving a railway line that had been ripped up six decades ago when the Oder-Neisse line became the border between the two nations.

A blue-and-white multiple-unit train arrived in Swinoujscie at Poland's end of the island of Usedom, where it was welcomed by mayor Janusz Zmurkiewicz.

The 1.4-kilometre extension line was built by UBB, a subsidiary of German railway giant Deutsche Bahn, which operates passenger services on Usedom, a Baltic island popular with German holidaymakers.

Warsaw- The head of Poland's biggest oil refiner resigned Thursday amid reports of disagreement within the management board.

Wojciech Heydel, who had served as CEO since June 7, resigned citing "the superior interest of the company as the current formula for co-operation within the framework of Management Board has been exhausted," the company said in a statement.

Heydel was replaced by Dariusz Krawiec, who had served as the board's vice-president from June 7. Krawiec was also rumoured to be favored by Poland's state treasury.