Former Polish President and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said yesterday he used to ask for pay rises when he was a union leader but did not give a single pay rise when he was President as he was "on the other side of the coin and saw things differently".

Speaking to Union Haddiema Maghqudin president Gejtu Tanti and to the secretary general Gejtu Vella, Mr Walesa said trade union movements were important as "no employer or government gave anything unless demands were made".

Mr Walesa is in Malta to promote Poland's bid to host Expo 2012 in the city of Wroclaw. He yesterday called on President Eddie Fenech Adami and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, visited President Emeritus Guido de Marco and was taken to see St John's Co-Cathedral, in Valletta.

Mr Walesa, a former shipyard worker in Gdansk, was a member of the illegal strike committee in 1970, following which 80 people were killed by riot police. After years of tough struggle, the Solidarnosc movement was set up in the 1980s.

In December 1990, Mr Walesa had won the presidential elections and Communism lost its grip on Poland, but his style of presidency was strongly criticised by most of the political parties and he lost most of the initial public support by the end of 1995, losing the presidential election.

He claimed his political retirement after contesting again the presidential elections in 2000, when he only obtained one per cent of the vote.