Russia is ready to help Poland organize...

Lavrov said Polish colleagues have informed Moscow of their plans for this year"s commemoration of the 1940 execution of several thousand of Polish POWs, mainly officers and soldiers, in Katyn, western Russia, which has remained a sensitive issue in ties between Poland and Russia.

"We are interested in helping [Poland] implement those plans on Russian soil," Lavrov told a news briefing.

But Lavrov refused to say whether Russian leaders would attend the events.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin moved to heal the rift over the massacre when he and other world leaders visited the former Communist-bloc state in September 2009 to mark the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany"s attack on Poland and the start of World War II.

Putin described the mass killings as a "crime" but called for "forgiveness."

The Soviet Union acknowledged the massacre, ordered by Joseph Stalin, in 1990. Modern Russia recognized Soviet responsibility for the mass shooting, but has not

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