When Poland made it a criminal offence this year to accuse it of complicity in Nazi war crimes, there was an outcry in Europe, Israel and the US.

Anyone found guilty could face up to three years in jail.

Five months later, the right-wing prime minister moved on Wednesday to change the law to decriminalise the offence, describing it as a "correction".

An amendment to the Holocaust law was quickly backed by the lower house of parliament and now moves to the Senate.

The law had been intended to "defend the good name of Poland" but from now on it would be a civil, not a criminal offence, the head of prime minister's office, Michal Dworczyk, told public radio.

When it was signed by Polish President Andzrej Duda in February there were immediate objections, and he then referred the measures to the Constitutional Tribunal, in effect putting the law on hold.

Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, publicly challenged the legislation in April, telling his counterpart it was undeniable that while many Poles had fought the Nazis in World War Two, "Poland and Poles had a hand in the extermination" of Jews during the Holocaust.

While admitting that Poland was backtracking on the law, the government said it had had the necessary effect, so that no-one would any more be able to use the defamatory phrase "Polish death camps" with impunity.