Warsaw  - Poland wants "normal" relations with its eastern neighbour Russia, despite Moscow's anger over a planned US missile defence system to be located in the country, the Polish foreign minister said on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish radio that "as a gesture" he had recommended that the Russians be invited to inspect the bases to be used in the proposed missile defence system.

The US and Poland signed an agreement in Warsaw on Wednesday for the construction of ten missile interceptor sites in the north of the country, as part of a system designed to defend Europe and the US against intercontinental missile attacks.

Warsaw - Three Polish soldiers were killed in a mine explosion in Afghanistan, a military spokesman told Polish television TVN24 on Wednesday.

Riga  - Lithuania and Poland on Monday urged NATO foreign ministers to offer Georgia and Ukraine a path to membership when they meet to discuss Russia's military intervention in the Caucasus.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Lithunian President Valdas Adamkus made the appeal before Tuesday's NATO emergency meeting in Brussels, citing "the uncontrolled violence and use of force in Georgia."

Turin, Italy - At least five people died in a lightning strike, drowning, electrocution, high winds and the downing of a tree as storms struck northern Italy, Poland and Austria.

A 10-year-old boy died Friday in Turin, Italy, after being hit by lightning while a 37-year-old Italian man drowned off Genoa the same day when he was swamped by high waves in the Mediterranean.

A female German tourist, 27, was missing in the rough waters near Ventimiglia, west of Genoa, and other swimmers narrowly escaped drowning before being rescued nearby.