France and Poland put behind them splits over Europe and the US-led war in Iraq on Monday, and said they wanted to forge a new axis with fellow large EU states Germany and Spain.
President Aleksander Kwasniewksi said Paris and Warsaw had revived their traditionally warm ties which had been soured by battles over the future shape of the European Union and Iraq.
"It was a very good meeting and I think we had a chance to improve Polish-French relations after some period of troubles, or different approaches, in many international issues," the Polish leader said after talks with President Jacques Chirac.
"I'm sure this meeting was very crucial and that what we announced...was really a good start to a new chapter in Polish-French relations," he told reporters.
Chirac's spokesman Jerome Bonnafont quoted the French leader as saying that "Poland's entry into the European Union was a new chapter that France and Poland should write together."
The French leader accepted Kwasniewski's invitation to visit Poland on January 27 for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
In February last year Chirac, who led international opposition to the Iraq war, savaged Poland and other east European states as "not very well behaved and reckless" for publishing an open letter in which they sided with Washington.
His jibe that they had "missed a good opportunity to shut up" came back to haunt him this year when many of the new EU states lined up with Britain to block Belgium's prime minister - France's favoured candidate - for the post of EU Commission President.
The split over Iraq was seized upon by Washington, which portrayed anti-war France and Germany as "Old Europe" in contrast to the "New Europe" epitomised by Poland and other European Union newcomers.
Poland has 2,500 troops in Iraq and commands an international force of 8,000 troops there. Warsaw intends to reduce its force strength from January 2005, but Kwasniewski said a date for a full withdrawal was still under discussion.
Kwasniewski said Chirac proposed a summit between the two leaders and top government officials for early next year, similar to gatherings France holds with Germany and Britain.
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