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The Czech national football side is preparing for its friendly match against Serbia, the teams' only preparation game before the qualification rounds for the European Championship begin in September. Players have met in Prague ahead of the game, which takes place on Wednesday. The team will be without a number of injured players and it will be its first game without midfielder Karel Poborsky, who retired following the World Cup. One of the players expected to take to the pitch is star midfielder Pavel Nedved, but there are rumours the game may be his final international cap. Nedved, who plays for Juventus Turin, has scheduled a press conference on Tuesday to announce whether he will stay on with the national side after this week or make Wednesday his final appearance.

The Green Party says its chief aim in the autumn Senate elections is to prevent the two strongest parties - the Civic and Social Democrats - from gaining a constitutional majority in the upper chamber. As the two strongest parties move towards reaching a deal on a new government the Greens and the Christian Democrats fear that they will join forces to push through an amendment to the election law which would threaten the existence of smaller parties. The Greens will run in 19 out of the 27 contested constituencies and they have offered to support Christian Democrat candidates in other constituencies. Constitutional amendments require a three-fifth majority in both chambers.

Czech political parties are presenting their views on the possibility of having a US missile base on Czech territory, even though Washington has not yet made known its preference on where it would like to station it. Both Poland and the Czech Republic are still in the running. The Social Democratic Party has said it wants a broad public debate on the issue and is pushing for a national referendum should the Czech Republic receive an offer from the United States. The Green Party said in a statement Sunday that a US military base should not be stationed on Czech territory on the basis of a bilateral agreement alone, but should involve NATO and the EU. The Civic Democratic Party alone appears to support the idea without reservations, but has not ruled out a referendum on the issue. The only opinion survey available on the subject suggests that 82 percent of Czechs do not want a US missile base in the Czech Republic.

Czech political leaders have made a breakthrough in talks on the formation of a new government, breaking a two months long deadlock. An agreement reached on Friday envisages the election of Social Democrat Miloslav Vlcek to the post speaker of parliament on a temporary basis, the resignation of the old cabinet and the appointment of a prime minister designate, all within a matter of days. All parliamentary parties have agreed to the plan, although the centre right parties have said they need guarantees from MP Vlcek that his mandate would be temporary and that he would resign under precisely defined conditions.

Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party has agreed to support a minority Civic Democratic Party government which would include both politicians and experts. The Social Democrats themselves would go into the opposition, and if all goes according to plan, party leader Jiri Paroubek would eventually become speaker of the lower house.