Minister for Legislation Jaroslav Bures has become the latest Cabinet minister to announce his resignation

The Czech Minister for Legislation, an independent nominated by the ruling Social Democrats, tendered his resignation on Wednesday, making good on his promise of last week to quit the Cabinet should all ministers not agree to step down en masse by this time. Jaroslav Bures is the fifth minister to resign from government in recent days.

The ministers of foreign affairs, the environment and transport -- all three Christian Democrats -- quit last week, after their party left the governing coalition of Prime Minister Stanislav Gross. They did so in protest of Mr Gross' failure to explain away allegations of questionable family business dealings. The Minister of Informatics, Vladimir Mlynar, resigned after Mr Gross survived a related no-confidence vote on Friday, thanks onlt to the abstention of Communist deputies.

Meanwhile, the ministers of justice and defence, like Mr Mlyar, both members of the centre-right Freedom Union party, have said they will remain in the government until at least next week when Prime Minister Gross is expected to decide about a collective resignation of the Cabinet.