Leaders from across central Europe yesterday called for the export of Poland's peaceful revolution to the neighbouring country of Belarus, described as Europe's last dictatorship.
Gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the birth of Solidarity, the presidents of Georgia and Ukraine, Mikhail Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko, were greeted with standing ovations as they declared that Solidarity's example should inspire democracy activists in Belarus to topple the authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who expects to be re-elected next year.

Mr Saakashvili and Mr Yushchenko, leaders of "rose" and "orange" revolutions in their countries in the past two years, called for August 31 - the day in 1980 that the communist bloc's first free trade union was born in a Gdansk shipyard - to be declared an international day of freedom and solidarity.
The Polish government is embroiled in a bitter tussle with the Lukashenko regime and in a battle of wits with Moscow.

As the biggest of the EU's new members, Poland is seeking to flex its foreign policy muscles and prod Brussels, Germany, and France towards a more assertive and critical policy towards Mr Lukashenko and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

To rousing applause, Mr Saakashvili said that following the Solidarity-led revolutions of 1989, the post-Soviet region was in the throes of "a second wave of liberation of Europe".