"There's huge interest. More than 500 firms have fulfilled the formal demands necessary in making their bid," he told a press confernce.

However, he said Polish companies wwere only in the running for subcontracting work from US companies taking part in the reconstruction programme coordinated by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Representativies of 20 companies "will go very soon to Kuwait to talk to the Americans", he said.

Among those companies is Nafta Polska, a state-owned company which operates the Rafineria Gdanska, the second-biggest refinery in Poland.

Poland, which along with Britain and Australia was among Washington's firmest supporters over the war in Iraq, hopes to have a role in its postwar reconstruction.

"The general climate is very good for Poland in the US," Zielinski said.

SPACE.WIRE