Polish PM seeks support for austerity measures

The Polish Prime Minister, Jerzy Buzek, who is attending the Solidarity Trade Union Congress, has appealed for support for his cabinet's austerity measures.

Mr Buzek's centre-right government plans to raise taxes on fuel, alcohol, tobacco and medicine from the New Year, and has already allowed power generating companies to put up their prices.

Mr Buzek, himself a one-timeSolidarity activist, assured the Congress that his government had firm roots in the social mass movement of the 1980's.

But the BBC Warsaw correspondent says that since the Solidarity-led alliance AWS came to power in September, Poland has seen an increase in industrial action.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service