Germany, Poland Ready to Sign Treaty to Guarantee Border : Europe: Kohl meets with the Polish prime minister. He also promises Poles visa-free travel by Christmas.

In a significant concession on timing, Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed Thursday that Germany will sign a treaty with Poland within the next few weeks guaranteeing their common border.

He also promised Poles visa-free travel into Germany by Christmas.

The announcement came at a news conference following nearly four hours of talks between Kohl and Polish Prime Minister in this German-Polish border city.

“It was the wish of the Polish side that the border treaty be signed this year, and I’ve agreed to that,” Kohl told reporters. “We will sign the border treaty in Warsaw in November.”

Kohl’s reluctance to deal with the Polish border issue earlier this year angered and upset Polish leaders and stirred worries elsewhere in Europe about the future intentions of a united Germany.

Although both Kohl and the German Parliament have since committed themselves to the treaty legally recognizing the 45-year-old border originally fixed by the victorious World War II Allies, he had hoped to postpone the signature until after next month’s German national elections.

The treaty has been opposed by a small but important minority of German voters who have strong cultural and emotional links with former German territories lost to Poland after the war.

This minority has long held the dream of regaining the 43,500 square miles of German land that became western Poland.

Thursday’s announcement reflects the growing confidence among Kohl’s campaign strategists that his position in the run-up to the Dec. 2 elections is virtually unassailable. His center-right coalition parties hold a clear majority in all major opinion polls.

By contrast, the concession is an important boost for Mazowiecki, in the thick of his own electoral race--a tightly contested fight with Solidarity trade union leader Lech Walesa for the Polish presidency that will be decided Nov. 25.

Kohl and Mazowiecki also agreed to push ahead with a so-called “grand treaty” that would shape the future bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Building a positive relationship with Poland is widely regarded as one of Kohl’s most difficult diplomatic challenges as he shapes policy for a newly united Germany.

Difficult, often emotive problems--including the question of compensation for wartime atrocities; the prospect of German financial aid to help Poland restructure its former Communist economy; the future of the estimated 750,000 to 950,000 ethnic Germans in Poland, and the border issue--all plague a relationship already loaded with centuries of mistrust and conflict.

Genuine German-Polish reconciliation is viewed as vital, both for the future of the two countries and for the stability of Central Europe.

But interviews along the border and among Germans living in Poland earlier this week indicated the depth of the differences between the two peoples--differences that unification has only widened.

Since unity, for example, the border has become largely a one-way affair.

As Mazowiecki’s black Volvo limousine sped him to his meeting with Kohl across the so-called Friendship Bridge connecting the two countries over the Oder River, German shoppers with crisp new deutschemarks streamed across the same bridge in the opposite direction to pick up bargains at the Polish markets just across the river.

Poles, unable to cross without visas, could only watch from their end of the bridge.

Standing with his infant son, 27-year-old truck driver Wilhelm Kowalsky said he felt a growing sense of separateness between Poles and Germans.

“Maybe it was because I was younger, but before, we didn’t feel they were Germans,” he said. “Now, it threatens me a bit because they are such a power.

“When I go over there I feel so tiny,” he added. “They have money; I don’t. When I go (to buy something), they look down on me.”

In Frankfurt an der Oder, an elderly German woman said the city’s facilities were already overloaded and that when Poles did come over, they tended to buy excessively.

“The Poles are aggravating,” she said.

While some Germans said they prefer an open border, an equal number said they would like it to remain closed for Poles.

The comments, made matter-of-factly and without overt bitterness, reflected a sense of growing distance between Poles and Germans who live in frequent contact.

So far, incidents have been few and relatively minor.

“If nationalist feelings don’t get the upper hand, then all will go well,” noted Wolfgang Globisch, a Roman Catholic priest for the German minority in the area of Kreuzburg, about 200 miles southeast of here. “But if these forces gather strength, then it could go bad.”