Poland will seriously consider arguments put forward by France, Britain and Germany for its state-owned airline to buy Airbus planes, President Aleksander Kwasniewski said on Monday.

Poland has been wooed by European leaders on behalf of Airbus, and by US President Bush on behalf of Boeing in a tug-of-war to replace planes at state-owned airline LOT.

Kwasniewski said after meeting French President Jacques Chirac that the French leader, as well as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, had shown "great determination" on the issue.

"We will take these arguments very seriously into consideration," Kwasniewski told a news conference in Arras, in northern France. Airbus "is a great European project," he added.

Last year LOT said it would buy up to five planes for a total of about USD$500 million, to replace Boeing 767s used on mainly trans-Atlantic long-haul routes.