Poland to apologise for Jewish massacre

The Polish Roman Catholic Church will apologise today for the killing of about 1,600 Jews in a pogrom during World War II.

A special ceremony will be held in a cathedral near the old Jewish ghetto in the capital, Warsaw.

The country's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, has welcomed the apology, but declined to attend the ceremony - which correspondents say is a sign of the sensitivity of the issue.

Until recently the Nazis were blamed for the attack in 1941 in which the Jewish people were burned alive in a barn.

But new research published in a book has suggested Poles carried it out, provoking a nationwide debate over the country's war-time role. Ceremony at 1700GMT.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service