Poland aims to beef up common defence plans for the European Union when it takes the helm of the bloc next year, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a NATO conference today.

"I would like to underscore that one of the priorities for Poland during our presidency of the European Union will be the reinforcement of European Union instruments in the field of defence and security," Tusk told a session of NATO's parliamentary assembly in Warsaw.

"What is of key importance is to make sure that this reinforcement is given top priority in the cooperation of the European Union with NATO, and thus allowing us to develop a common strategy," he said.

With 38 million people, Poland was the largest of 12 mainly ex-communist nations to have joined the 27-member EU since 2004.

Warsaw has increasingly sought to punch its weight within the bloc, and is gearing up for its six-month tenure in charge of the EU in the second half of next year.

Poland, which broke free from the crumbling Soviet bloc in 1989, has also become a major player in the 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which it joined in 1999.

There is considerable overlap in NATO and the EU's membership, but joint defence efforts in the latter were long complicated by the fact that it also includes neutral, non-NATO nations.

However, the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty, which came into force last year, set a path towards bloc-wide defence and security policies.

The NATO parliamentary assembly, which brings together 260 lawmakers from the alliance's member states, meets twice a year to debate security policy and international affairs.

Its Warsaw session, which began Friday, was due to wrap up later Tuesday.

Besides lawmakers from NATO countries, dozens of deputies from non-member states are also taking part.

Most come from would-be alliance members in the ex-communist bloc, as well as Russia, but non-NATO EU members Austria, Finland and Sweden have also sent delegations.