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The leaders of the Civic Democrats and the Greens have agreed to a proposal from the other party in the governing coalition the Christian Democrats to push for a reduction in the number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies from 200 to 199. The chairmen of the three parties are set to continue discussions on other possible changes to the Czech Republic’s electoral law.

US President Barack Obama says he wants to work with Russia to resolve a nuclear stand-off with Iran, but has denied reports he offered to slow deployment of a missile defence shield in exchange for Moscow’s help. Washington has signed deals with Prague on basing part of the defence system, a radar base, in central Bohemia, though the Czech Parliament has not yet voted on the matter. The New York Times reported this week that Mr Obama had sent a letter to Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, suggesting he would pull back from deploying the missile shield if Russia helped stop Iran from developing long-range weapons. Speaking on Tuesday, however, the US president said the letter simply reiterated statements he had made saying the defence system was directed towards Iran, not Russia. Mr Obama said obviously if Iran’s commitment to nuclear weapons was lessened there would be less pressure for or need for a missile defence shield.

The Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, said on Wednesday that nothing had changed regarding plans to build a US radar on Czech territory. He said if Iran gave up its nuclear ambitions the whole situation would change and the missile defence system could be discussed again.

The Czech government has invested considerable political capital in backing the US radar base, which opinion polls have consistently suggested most Czechs are opposed to.

The editor-in-chief of Právo says he has been repeatedly warned recently that the newspaper would lose advertisers if it continues to portray the opposition Social Democrats in an unfavourable light. In an article in Wednesday’s edition, Zdeněk Porybný said the advertisers concerned were companies whose management were appointed or influenced by the state. The leader of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, has denied the allegations, calling on Mr Porybný to back up his statements. The left-leaning Právo grew out of the former communist newspaper Rudé Právo.

Czech power giant ČEZ has announced a record net profit of 47.4 billion crowns in 2008, an increase of 11 percent on the previous year. The company predicts this year’s profits will rise even higher, to 50.2 billion crowns. This is largely thanks to the fact that it sold a lot of this year’s power production at high prices before the financial crisis hit. The almost 70 percent state-owned company says it will scale back its acquisition ambitions for the moment because of the crisis by removing Russia and Ukraine from its target areas.