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A man was killed on Monday when he was knocked down by an ambulance on a zebra crossing in Prague's Jizni Mesto, Czech Television has reported. The man died immediately after being hit by the ambulance, which did not have its siren or flashing lights turned on. Police are investigating the accident.

The Prime Minister also announced that he would present a new concept of an information campaign about the European constitution in two weeks' time. He said the campaign leading up to the referendum should not only focus on the constitution, but also on Czech membership in the EU in general. The main points of discussion on the EU should be the Schengen treaty, institution of the euro, using EU structural funds, the Czech presidency of the EU and the contribution of the EU to the Czech education system. According to Mr Paroubek, the EU could contribute to the campaign.

The Czech President Vaclav Klaus said that after France and the Netherlands rejected the European constitution, holding a referendum in the Czech Republic is unnecessary. He added that any referendum would only by a public opinion poll and not a meaningful referendum under the Czech constitution. Mr Klaus also said he was not surprised by the failure of EU negotiations on the EU budget for the 2007 to 2013 period, but he did say he believed a compromise would be reached.

Talks between EU leaders on a draft budget for 2007-2013 have ended in failure after the United Kingdom rejected a compromise deal on its rebate. Alongside the UK, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and Finland also rejected the draft. This was despite attempts by three of the new EU members, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania, to save the deal by giving up some of their own budget demands. The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek backed the attempt, saying that such sacrifices would have been worthwhile. The EU President Jean Claude Juncker said that the EU was now in deep crisis, but the Czech prime minister was less drastic, saying that he was convinced an agreement would be reached sooner or later. He blamed the failure of the talks on the inability of the union to come to terms with its own expansion.

At the summit leaders did agree to a common stance on the ratification of the European constitution, following its rejection by France and the Netherlands. Delegates agreed not to stop the ratification process altogether, but instead to postpone the deadline. The Czech prime minister said that he would favour the end of next year as a suitable date for the Czech Republic to attempt to ratify the treaty. On Saturday afternoon leaders of the three parties in the Czech government met to discuss their future stance on the ratification process.