"Our delegation will arrive at the European Council this afternoon," Kaczynski's spokeswoman Agnieszka Kolacz told AFP.

But it remained unclear Wednesday afternoon whether the president had the required acccreditation to join the meeting as the government has refused to include him in Poland's official delegation.

The Brussels meeting of the European Council, which groups the heads of government of the EU's 27 member states, was due to open in the afternoon.

The session is focused on the EU's response to the global financial crisis and forging the bloc's strategy to stop global warming.

Kaczynski's presence in Brussels is considered an "unofficial" visit, and as such he was not a party to the official delegation, a Polish government official told AFP.

A European Council official told AFP Wednesday that the summit organisers had still not received a request to add Kaczynski to the list of participants.

Poland's PAP new agency quoted Kaczynski as saying he intended to meet briefly with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current holder of the 27-member EU's rotating presidency, while in Brussels.

Kaczynski also told the PAP he hoped to find a seat next to Prime Minister Tusk at the summit's main session.

"We are all somewhat confused, but we'll have to live with it somehow," Tusk said Wednesday ahead of the meeting, but declined to divulge whether he would make room for the president.

On Monday Tusk's office barred Kaczynski from using an official government plane to travel to Brussels.

Instead, the president's staff hired a Boeing 737 from Poland's flag-carrier LOT for the trip.

The airline refused to comment, but the Polish rolling news channel TVN24 reported that the cost to the presidential budget -- and thus the taxpayer -- was 140,000 zlotys (40,000 euros, 55,000 dollars).

Kaczynski and the pro-EU premier have been adversaries for years, and were thrown into an unhappy working relationship when Tusk won a general election in October 2007, ousting the government of the president's conservative identical twin Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

The Polish constitution gives the prime minister priority in steering the country's foreign policy, but Kaczynski has battled to set the agenda and keep attending summits of the European Union, which Poland joined in 2004.

The Kaczynski twins gained a reputation as troublemakers at EU summits -- where they argued they were simply defending Poland's interests -- and Tusk has tried to mend fences since coming to power.

Poles are fed up with the squabbling, according to surveys published Wednesday, with 85 percent of those polled by the PBS institute and 77 percent by agency GfK saying the sparring tarnished Poland's image.

PBS found that 83 percent of Poles were ashamed, with 63 percent saying Tusk was right and 26 percent backing Kaczynski.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.