German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk over the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and all 96 others on board in western Russia on Saturday.

"I learned of the terrible disaster with great dismay and sadness," Merkel said.

"In this difficult time, the whole German nation is in sympathy and solidarity with you and Poland," she said in the message to Tusk.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is visiting South Africa, also expressed shock at the plane crash, saying that it was "a tragic moment" for Germany's eastern neighbour.

With the death of Kaczynski and other senior Polish officials, Europe had lost people it had been able to rely on, Westerwelle was quoted by German media as saying.