(STRASBOURG) - Poland is a great country with a very poor government, the head of the European parliament's Socialist group said Wednesday.

Germany's Martin Schulz, who has elicited calls from Warsaw for his sacking, however denied that he had called on Tuesday for Poland's isolation, saying he had been intentionally misquoted.

"I don't confuse the Polish government with the Polish people," he told AFP on the sidelines of a parliamentary session in Strasbourg.

"Poland is a tremendous country with tremendous people but, sadly, a very poor government".

On Tuesday Schulz complained that Polish leaders had blocked the creation of European day against the death penalty.

"I ask myself how many more time the 26 other member states must accept this sort of thing without flinching," he said.

Polish media reported that Schulz called on the rest of the 27-nation EU to refuse to accept Poland's veto on plans for a symbolic European campaign against the death penalty, thereby isolating the country, which was the biggest entrant of 10 new members to the EU in 2004.

Poland's government, which is steered by the deeply Catholic President Lech Kaczynski and his twin Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has argued that the right to life -- in opposition to abortion and euthanasia -- should also be marked.

Schulz reportedly called on the Kaczynskis' fellow EU leaders to show how "totally isolated" Warsaw was on the issue.

He has fallen foul of other EU figures in the past. In 2003 he clashed with then Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, who said he would be a good film casting choice for a Nazi camp guard.

The Kaczynskis' Law and Justice (PiS) party is currently locked in a bitter battle with Poland's liberal and left-wing opposition, ahead of the country's October 21 parliamentary elections.

Ludwik Dorn a leading ally of Warsaw's ruling conservative Kaczynski twins, on Wednesday called for Schulz to be sacked.

The speaker of Poland's lower house of parliament urged Poland's nine Socialist MEPs to give their fellow members of the left-wing grouping an ultimatum to sack Martin Schulz.

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