Romney in Poland for trip down Cold War memory lane

White House hopeful Mitt Romney was to hold talks with Poland\'s Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the anti-communist icon Lech Walesa on Monday, as he makes his first venture beyond the old iron curtain. On the final leg of a three-stop tour designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials, the Republican contender has chosen to visit a country which has notably testy relations with Russia and is now a key pillar of NATO and the EU. And in his talks with Walesa, Romney will hope to generate valuable headlines and photo opportunities from the one-time union leader who has been openly critical of US President Barack Obama. The meeting with Walesa will take place in the Baltic port city of Gdansk before he takes part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Westeplatte memorial where an attack by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, sparked World War II. A visit to the Gdansk Shipyard is also on the agenda -- the place from where Walesa led a series of strikes in the 1980s as leader of the Solidarity and which were pivotal in the peaceful 1989 demise of communism in Poland. Poles have long lauded late US \"Cold Warrior\" Republican president Ronald Reagan\'s staunch support for Solidarity\'s anti-communist drive, and displayed admiration for his party\'s firm approach towards Moscow. Talks with Poland\'s centrist Tusk, a former Solidarity dissident, are expected Monday afternoon before Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist, meets with Walesa. The former Gdansk shipyard electrician who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for galvanising Solidarity and went on to become Poland\'s first democratically-elected president in 1990 invited Romney to Poland. Romney has struggled to connect with working-class US voters and his meeting with the former union leader is seen as an opportunity to reach out to beyond his traditional support base ahead of the November 6 US election. A New York Times/CBS News poll released July 19 marked the first time Romney scored a numerical edge over Obama, with 45 percent of respondents saying they would vote for him if the elections were held now, compared with 43 percent for Obama. Walesa, 68, has both snubbed and questioned the foreign policy of fellow Nobel laureate and Democratic challenger, US President Barack Obama. He refused a meeting with Obama during his May 2011 visit to Poland, saying it would \"only amount to a photo opportunity.\" In July 2009, Walesa and late Czech anti-communist legend Vaclav Havel penned an open letter slamming Obama\'s revamp of an anti-missile shield installation in Poland and the Czech Republic planned by his Republican predecessor President George Bush. A host of former leaders in the region signed on to the statement casting doubt on US policy in the region in the face of what they dubbed a \"revisionist\" Russia. Poland could serve as a platform from which Romney could hit out at Russia -- a country the candidate has repeatedly labeled a key geopolitical foe -- in a public address in Warsaw on day-two of the visit when he will also meet President Bronislaw Komorowski. In a July 24 address outlining his foreign policy approach, Romney already slammed the Obama administration for what he termed its \"abandonment of friends\" in the region still wary of Russia. He also had harsh words for Moscow, doubting the legitimacy of the election which brought President Vladimir Putin a second term and accusing Russia of arming Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as he \"slaughtered\" the his people. Romney\'s arrival in Poland comes after stops in Britain where the Utah 2002 Winter Olympics guru ruffled feathers by questioning security readiness for the ongoing London games. In Israel he held top-level talks backing Israel\'s right to thwart Iran\'s nuclear ambitions, but quickly drew fire from the Palestinians for endorsing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.