(PRAGUE) - Poland's President Lech Kaczynski will meet his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus in Prague Thursday to discuss the EU's Lisbon Treaty, officials from both countries announced.

But a senior Polish official dismissed reports that Kaczynski was there to try to influence Klaus's position on the treaty.

"The debate on the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon is following its own course in the Czech Republic," Mariusz Handzlik, Director of Poland's Office of Foreign Affairs, told AFP in Warsaw.

"President Klaus' position is well known. But the problem remains to be solved in Ireland, not in the Czech Republic or in Poland," he added.

Radim Ochvat, a spokesman for Klaus' office, confirmed that the two leaders would be meeting to discuss the implications of the referendum. "The rest, you will learn at the press conference afterwards," he added.

Immediately after the June 12 Irish referendum that rejected the treaty, both Klaus and Kaczynski indicated that it had effectively blocked the ratification process, since it required the support of all EU member states.

Earlier this month, Kaczynski said he would not ratify the treaty unless Ireland approved it in a new referendum.

But after talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the EU's rotating six-month presidency, he said Poland would not block its ratification.

Immediately after the Irish vote, Klaus said the Lisbon treaty was now a dead letter.

The Czech constitution does not give Klaus, as president, the power to oppose the treaty if parliament ratifies it. But he has been lobbying hard in parliament against it.

The centre-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is awaiting a ruling from the constitutional court as to whether the treaty clashes with Czech law before holding parliamentary vote.

The 27-member bloc was thrown into crisis by the Irish vote. The treaty has been described as a crucial reform package for the bloc.

Kaczynski will meet Klaus at Lany Castle, where the Czech president is convalescing from a hip replacement operation.

Prague will take over the EU presidency from Paris at the beginning of next year.

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