More workers in Poland will be able to mark the Sabbath rest on Sundays after lawmakers approved fresh curbs on weekend trading.

Shopping centres will eventually only be allowed to open on seven Sundays every year under a new law, which gained support from Polish Catholic leaders.

Passed largely thanks to support of members from the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), the bill is set to be formally signed into law by PiS ally and President Andrzej Duda.

From 2019, shopping malls will only be allowed to open during two Sundays every month and, from 2020, and only seven Sundays every year.

Welcoming the move, Poland's Bishops Conference was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying: "Let's not disregard God in public life and let's not assume we have the right to organise national life as if God didn't exist."

The new measures will be introduced gradually from March 2018 and mean all but the smallest shops will be forced to shut their doors on most Sundays.

It is not expected that online shopping firms, gas stations, restaurants, cafes or cinemas will be affected.

The new legislation was suggested by the Solidarity trade union in a bid to ensure workers can spend more time with their loved ones.