By Adam Easton BBC News, Warsaw

Under the plan ex-secret service agents are expected to be barred from public jobs and have their state benefits cut.

Like all former Soviet bloc countries, Poland has wrestled with the legacy of communism.

But, successive governments decided not to purge former communists to try to promote reconciliation in society.

'Criminal organisation'

Weeding out former communists from public life is one of the main goals of the Kaczynski brothers, the identical twins who govern Poland as president and prime minister.

Until now, the pair who were both activists for the opposition Solidarity movement in the 1980s, have concentrated on those who collaborated with the Communist secret police.

The archbishop of Warsaw collaborated with the secret police

But many Poles are unhappy that most secret service officers remain unpunished while the informers were often forced to co-operate through harassment and blackmail.

The details of the de-communisation bill have not been finalised. But it is expected to include barring former officers from certain public posts, reducing their pensions to a minimum level and declaring the communist secret service a criminal organisation.

The announcement follows the resignation of the Archbishop of Warsaw Stanislaw Wielgus after he admitted to collaborating with the communist secret police.