WARSAW, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Wednesday fired Interior Minister Janusz Kaczmarek over a corruption investigation.

    Kaczynski named a new agriculture minister late last month to replace a coalition ally, intensifying the row among parties in the government.

    The ruling coalition has been thrown into bitter infighting since Self-Defense party leader Andrzej Lepper was fired amid the corruption scandal on July 9.

    Two smaller parties in the government accused Kaczynski of violating their coalition agreement by naming one of his own loyalists, Wojciech Mojzesowicz, as farming minister and rejecting the candidate proposed by the Self-Defense party.

    Kaczynski is set to call early elections if partners in his shaky coalition fail to meet his conditions.

    "I have decided that the best solution to the present political crisis will be early elections, if our coalition partners do not agree to our conditions," Kaczynski has said.

    Opinion polls show that Lepper's leftist party has little chance of winning the elections if they take place this November. Elections are not due until 2009.