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On Sunday afternoon the US president met with the leaders of the 27 EU member states for an informal EU-US summit. The talks focused primarily on security issues, the situation in Afghanistan and global warming. Mr. Obama also asked EU leaders to consider taking in former prisoners from Guantanamo. Some EU states have indicated they would be willing to comply with this request on a case-by-case basis.

President Barack Obama also said the United States was ready to take the lead in tackling climate change, breaking with his predecessor George W. Bush's stance, which had long frustrated Washington's European Union partners. Speaking after the informal summit, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said he detected a genuine change under the new US administration.

U.S. comments on the need to continue developing defences against ballistic missiles have confirmed the Czech position that a defence shield is needed, the Czech Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova told the CTK news agency that Mr. Obama’s speech and statements from the White House confirm what the Czech Republic had been saying all along and what was also confirmed by the NATO summit - that anti-missile defence is necessary, or it will be sooner or later. The White house said North Korea's rocket launch earlier on Sunday demonstrated the need for the United States to continue developing anti-missile systems.

The former US administration of president Bush made plans to site missile-defence components in Central Europe – a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland. Since the change of administration their future has been uncertain. Although the Czech government has approved the radar and Prague and Washington have signed the respective treaties, the project would still need to be approved by Parliament. Opinion polls show that the majority of Czechs are against the siting of a US radar on Czech soil. Three hundred people turned out to demonstrate against it in the centre of Prague on Saturday and more protests took place today.

Talks on the composition of a caretaker government which would rule the country until early elections planned for the autumn continued over the weekend with a statement expected late on Sunday. Representatives of the ruling coalition and the opposition Social Democrats are hoping to reach agreement on a prime minister designate and 16 members of cabinet, a proposal that would be presented to the president on Monday. The ruling parties and the opposition were forced to cooperate on producing a new government after President Klaus said that he would not consider naming a prime minister designate anyone who did not have majority support in the lower house. The alternative is that President Klaus himself would put together a transitional cabinet of his own choice. The caretaker cabinet now being compiled by the coalition and opposition parties is likely to consist of career diplomats and non-partisan experts.