Poland remains a key strategic ally for the United States, exploiting ties forged through history, demographics and the perils of keeping peace in Iraq, according to President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

In an interview with AFP over coffee in the presidential palace, he talked of his nation's ambition to serve as a unifying bond between Washington and a Europe that often chafes at US policy around the world.

Both sides need each other, he said, as they faced up to the challenges of the post-Cold War age.

The interview, 10 days before a visit to France, was also an opportunity to put down a marker for future EU relations -- that Poland, one of the European Union's newest states, will be no pushover for more established members of the bloc.

"We are a strategic partner of the United States," the president said. "We know how much we owe to the United States for our path to freedom."

He refused to be drawn on November's US presidential election, saying that Polish-US relations went deeper than who was in the White House.

"There are millions of family links between Americans and Poles," he added, claiming 11 million people in the United States with Polish roots.

Kwasniewski, flanked by his political adviser, said Warsaw was in favour of bolstering transatlantic relations as it saw the United States as "the world's biggest European nation, even if that may sound paradoxical."

"America needs Europe and Europe needs America," he went on.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union as one of the two world superpowers, the United States "cannot play the role of the new world leader on their own, they need partners."

"I have always said to (US) President (George W.) Bush that good relations between Washington and Paris, and Washington and Berlin, are important for our security from a Polish point of view too."

Nevertheless, he regretted that in Europe, "we still have some way to go to put in place a real European security policy and a European foreign policy."

While France and Germany led opposition to last year's US-led war on Iraq, Britain and several other European countries -- including Poland -- joined in by sending troops and other support.

Poland currently has 2,500 troops in Iraq, where it commands a 6,000-strong multinational force in one of the country's military zones.

Kwasniewski acknowledged that it was a "difficult" situation, and that his decision to join the US-led coalition, flying against public opinion, "was as difficult as it was for France not to take part."

For now, he said, it was essential to return power to the Iraqis, "leave as many international troops as is necessary on the ground to prevent new wars or conflicts, and continue to fight terrorism together."

"Terrorists have declared war against all of us," he insisted, pointing to the kidnapping in Iraq of two French reporters "who had done nothing" and are natives of a country that refused to support the invasion.

On Europe, Kwasniewski said Poland would not let itself be relegated to the role of bit-part player just because it was a new member.

Poland was the largest of the 10 mainly former communist countries to join the European Union on May 1, raising the membership to 25 and also helping to tilt some of the balance away from traditional heavyweights such as France.

"We cannot play a junior role in Europe, nor do we want to. We feel we have forged our place in Europe, a place that wasn't just fashioned yesterday but a millennium ago."

Relations with Paris were "very good," he added, recalling that France was the biggest foreign investor in his homeland.

However, the two countries have fallen out recently: first over Iraq, then over the new EU constitution, which Poland felt did not give it enough voting clout to reflect its status as the bloc's sixth biggest nation.

"I see no drama there, but a situation of honesty between two big European countries," he said.