Government finalises programme priorities

The Czech caretaker government finalised its policy programme at a meeting on Monday. The statement of priorities - which was not immediately made public - should pave the way for Prime Minister Jan Fischer to ask the lower house for a confidence vote. The government is virtually assured of winning the vote given that the two main political parties played the major role in its creation. The government also backed an amendment to the so-called muzzling law which bans identifying victims or suspects of crime or wire taps without their consent. Three backbenchers have tabled an amendment which would allow information to be released in the public interest.