State-run Polish Radio will begin broadcasting news in Hebrew in March in an attempt to strengthen Poland's links with Israel and help it cast off what it believes is an unfair reputation for anti-Semitism.

Poland had the biggest Jewish population in Europe until World War Two, but the murder of millions in the Holocaust by the occupying Germans and hostility from the postwar communist authorities left only a few thousand Jews in the country by the 1990s.

Polish governments since the collapse of the Soviet bloc have tried to rebuild relations with Israel and the Jewish community overseas, and many thousands of Jews visit the land of their parents and grandparents each year.

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"We want good relations between Poland and Israel and to provide the worldwide Jewish community with information about Poland's Jewish minority," Adam Burakowski, deputy Director of Polish Radio's foreign department, told Reuters on Friday.

"These programs are another battle in the war to disprove the unfair opinion that Poland is anti-Semitic," he added.

Polish Radio spokesman Tadeusz Fredro-Boniecki said the broadcasts, initially for just a few hours a day, would be capable of reaching Israel and the whole of Europe. Details of bands and frequencies would be announced soon.