Poland's prime minister has shelved plans to redefine the definition of domestic violence so that it only applies to spouses who are beaten more than once, a move critics said would make it difficult to prosecute abusers.

A proposed amendment from the Polish government's families ministry had aimed to remove "single cases" of abuse from domestic violence legislation.

The draft bill, published on a government legal website, provoked a wave of criticism in Poland amid fears it would effectively legalise "one-off" incidents of wife-beating.

But on Wednesday Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, announced he had rejected the bill and sent it back to the families ministry to rewrite the "dubious" content.

"Tackling domestic violence is a priority of the government of Law and Justice, and Polish law must be clear and without a shadow of a doubt fully protect victims," he said in a statement.

"Every act of domestic violence - a "one-off" act and repeated acts - must be treated firmly and unambiguously," he added.

The legal reforms would also have changed Poland's Blue Card procedure so that victims of domestic violence would need to give consent to the police before officers could monitor the household.