(Adds quotes from military, background)

WARSAW, April 5 (Reuters) - Poland may be forced to strengthen its military mission in Iraq and order it on the offensive more in response to recent attacks on its base there, President Lech Kaczynski said on Thursday.

"Our base has been frequently shot at recently, so we may have to change the character (of the mission) to more offensive," Kaczynski told a news conference. "If someone thinks that this is the way to force Poles out of Iraq, he's wrong."

Poland now has about 900 soldiers in Iraq after Warsaw gradually scaled-back its presence from almost 2,500 troops and the mission now mainly focuses on training Iraqi forces.

Earlier on Thursday, Polish army commander General Waldemar Skrzypczak was quoted as saying during his visit to the army base that more combat troops were needed to protect the operation there.

"One needs to give the division commander more combat units," Skrzypczak was quoted by the PAP news agency as saying.

PAP also quoted the head of army operational command, Henryk Tacik, as saying Poland might need to consider increasing its contingent in Iraq.

Poland last year decided to extend its mission in Iraq until the end of 2007.

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