Warsaw - Poles marked the 69th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II on Monday with a ceremony at Westerplatte, the site of the war's first battle after Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

Sirens were sounded at 4:45 am near the Baltic coastal city of Gdansk, marking the exact time a German battleship first fired at the Polish garrison.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk took part in the ceremony, speaking on the importance of remembrance.

"Why do we meet with such determination, why do we commemorate such dates," Tusk said. "We've built, and we will build, our national identity on the remembrance of our heroes and such events."

Warsaw - Thousands of Solidarity labour union members marched in the capital on Friday demanding better wages, better retirement pensions and improved labour laws.

Workers came from all over Poland to gather in Warsaw's Pilsudski Square and march across the city towards Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office.

There, they were slated to release balloons inscribed with Tusk's quotes to symbolize his "flyaway" election promises. The workers also gathered coins for Tusk's symbolic "early retirement."

At the head of the march, workers pushed shopping carts filled with a few staple items they claim the average Polish old age pensioner or minimum wage worker can afford.

Warsaw - Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Friday said the Polish and Baltic stance on Georgia at an upcoming European Union summit "won't be completely radical, but radical enough."

"We will defend Georgia to the end, to the fall," the Polish Press Agency (PAP) quoted Kaczynski as saying on his return from a meeting in Tallinn of the heads of Baltic states Estonia and Latvia and a representative of Lithuania's president.

The politicians had met Thursday to work out a common stance on Georgia before Monday's EU summit on the issue. Kaczynski declined to give further details after the meeting, saying there's no common stance yet, but that two variances were being considered by the group of leaders, PAP reported.

Warsaw  - President Lech Kaczynski was slated to meet with heads of three Baltic states to work out a common stance on Georgia for an upcoming European Union summit, his chancellery told Radio ZET on Thursday.

"There's an expectation from the Baltic states that the president in Brussels will present a common stance of the three states - the three Baltic states and Poland," said Piotr Kownacki, vice-chief of the president's chancellery.

Kaczynski will meet with his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia either on Thursday or Monday. He could fly Thursday to Vilnius or another Baltic capital, Kownacki said, or meet the heads of state in Brussels on Monday before the summit.