Polish official offers resignation

May 23, 2005

WARSAW, Poland --Poland's interior minister offered his resignation Monday amid reports of growing corruption in police forces around the country, his office said.

The offer from Interior Minister Ryszard Kalisz is the latest in a series of blows to Prime Minister Marek Belka's beleaguered Cabinet.

It was not immediately clear whether Belka would accept the resignation, said Interior Ministry spokesman Jaroslaw Skowronski.

Kalisz's office announced last week it was investigating allegations that federal police officers had been stealing and selling confiscated drugs, one of several recent scandals involving the country's police.

Belka's governing Democratic Left Alliance is struggling with single-digit support, as Poland heads into national elections in September.

Belka's economy minister, Jerzy Hausner, resigned in March, followed by Environment Minister Jerzy Swaton. A resignation letter was submitted then by Health Minister Marek Balicki, but was not accepted.

Belka himself offered to resign recently, hoping for earlier elections, but President Aleksander Kwasniewski refused to accept his resignation.

Belka said he had wanted to quit government to devote time to forming a new centrist party.

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