More than 500 Polish companies have already submitted bids for reconstruction work, deputy labour and economy minister Miroslaw Zielinski told a press conference.

A Polish business delegation "will go very soon to Kuwait to talk to the Americans", he said. "The general climate is very good for Poland in the US."

State-owned Nafta Polska, which operates Poland's second-largest oil refinery, is understood to be among the 20 firms with representatives on the delegation.

Zielinski said the Polish companies were in the running for subcontracting work from US companies under the reconstruction programme coordinated by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"There's huge interest," he said, adding that the economy and labour ministry was considering launching a programme of aid for companies bidding for contracts in Iraq.

Along with Britain and Australia, Poland was among Washington's firmest supporters over the Iraq war.

Bogdan Golik, vice president of the Polish chamber of commerce, said Polish businesses were particularly well-placed to contribute to the reconstruction of postwar Iraq.

Polish companies had been very active in Iraq during the 1980s, he said. "They have a good knowledge of local conditions and they have access to skilled and relatively cheap labour."

Polish construction and civil engineering firms had undertaken some 25 major projects around this time, Golik said, "and they got good marks".

Polish construction and engineering group BTP Budimex, which built cement works and motorways in Iraq, is understood to be a likely candidate for reconstruction contracts.

Poland did around 200 million dollars (185 million euros) of trade every year with Iraq prior to the 1991 Gulf War and the sanctions that followed it, according to official figures. Poland's share of Iraq's massive debt amounts to some 700 million dollars.

Companies in France, Germany and other countries that opposed the war have long feared they could be left out of the lucrative reconstruction effort.

The US State Department last week denied it was preparing to hold a donor conference for Iraq, after Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said such a gathering was planned, with only Britain, Australia and Poland set to be invited by Washington.

SPACE.WIRE