Warsaw - A growing number of Poles now support building a civil nuclear reactor in their country, according to an opinion poll in the daily Rzeczpospolita on Monday.

Some 42 per cent are opposed to the project, compared to 56 per cent last year against nuclear energy, said the survey of 1,000 people.

The gradual shift in opinion comes as Poland realizes how dependent its is on Russia for energy - and susceptible to another crisis, sociologist Barbara Fedzyszak-Radziejowska said.

Minsk - Warsaw warned Belarusian authoritarian leader Aleksander Lukashenko on Monday to allow ethnic Poles in the former Soviet republic the right of assembly, or face further isolation.

"Aleksander Lukashenko cannot be invited to the European Union summit in Prague, unless he respects the rights of the Polish minority in his country," according to a Polish government letter made public by ethnic Polish activists in Belarus.

Opposition news reports identified Anzhelika Boris, head of the Union of Poles of Belarus, as the person making the letter public.

Warsaw  - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will meet Monday with the Polish president for talks expected to concern the run-up to Poland's holding of European Parliament elections, local media reported.

Barroso will meet with Polish President Lech Kaczynski on the country's general political and economic situation before the elections, a European Commission spokesperson told Polish Radio.

Warsaw - Poland so far has felt just the beginnings of the financial crisis and the worst is yet to come, said a Polish Chamber of Commerce study on Monday.

One out of five firms in Poland plans to lay off workers, according to the study for the daily Gazeta Wyborcza. One-fifth of the companies' stocks lost value.

Nearly 90 per cent of businesses said the crisis in Poland is in its beginning stages and will get worse, the study found, while a third reported a drop in orders.

Gliwice, Poland  - The Gliwice mine in southern Poland no longer produces the coal that made the region known as an industrial powerhouse during communism. But it's hardly a relic of the past.

The mine's smoky bricks have been polished to a lively orange, and its interior renovated to house a business and education centre with a state-of-the-art lecture hall.

The city's mayor, Zygmunt Frankiewicz, says Gliwice is a symbol of the changes in the coal-rich Silesia region, and a sign pointing to the province's dynamic future.