The Polish parliament has begun debate on a bill that has property owners up in arms, whose assets were seized first by the Nazis and later by Poland's communist regime.

Under the government-approved bill, people seeking compensation for property seized between 1939 and 1962 will be able to recover only 50% of their claim.

Gen Jaruzelski: Poland's last Communist president

This has led former property owners to accuse the government of sanctioning the communists' expropriation of half of their assets.

The draft legislation proposes that all Polish citizens, including Jews but excluding Germans, would be eligible for compensation.

In contrast to the Czech Republic and Hungary which enacted restitution legislation shortly after the fall of communism, no post-communist Polish government has had the fortitude to tackle the costly and highly-controversial issue.

The potential cost of restitution is astronomical.

Poland could face claims from two and a half million people totalling between $27 and $32bn, the equivalent of the country's national annual budget.

President Kwasniewski has to sign the bill

Some property owners have grown impatient with a decade of legislative delay and have taken their claims to court.

Among them the grandson of the Jewish owner of the house where Pope John Paul II was born.

He has begun legal steps in the Polish courts to recover his family's assets which now house a museum on the Pontiff's life.

In other cases, former property owners have managed to recover assets under existing Polish law.