THE Polish Prime Minister, Mr Jozef Oleksy, announced his resignation yesterday after a military court said it would probe allegations that he had spied for Moscow.
"The functioning of the state can not be destabilised. I have decided to put aside personal considerations and resign from the post of prime minister," Mr Oleksy (49), a former communist who has been in power less than a year, said in a televised speech.
"I have nothing to hide. I am innocent. I need this investigation, only it can reveal the truth and remove the charges against me," he added.
The military prosecutor's office said earlier in the day it would open a formal investigation into the spying allegations.
Calls for Mr Oleksy to step down have mounted since an ally of the former president, Mr Lech Walesa, charged last month that Mr Oleksy passed state secrets to Moscow through two KGB agents stationed in Warsaw in the 1980s and early l990s.
Mr Oleksy has admitted having contacts with the men but vehemently denies having engaged in espionage.
. The Council of Europe is likely to approve Russia's membership of the 38 nation organisation today, delegates said yesterday in Strasbourg despite misgivings about its military action in Chechnya.
The parliamentary assembly of the council held up Russia's 1992 membership application for seven months last year because of Chechnya, but seems unwilling to snub Moscow twice.
Mr Leni Fischer, the newly elected conservative German president of the assembly, has urged a Yes vote.
Mr Yeltsin pleaded on Tuesday for the council to let Moscow in, saying that Russia was committed to democratic reforms and to finding a peaceful solution in the breakaway Chechnya region.
A Yes vote would clear the way to Russian accession to the council in February or March after formal approval by member governments.
"A negative vote would create a political curtain between the two parts of Europe, said Mr Gennady Zuganov, leader of Russia's Communist Party. "Russia as part of Europe, a legitimate child and not a bastard."