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Health Minister David Rath says he does not rule out the possibility of a Civic Democrat minority government supported by his Social Democrats. Speaking in Lidove noviny, Mr Rath said that was one possible variant, and would be better than a "grand coalition" of the Civic and Social Democrats. However, his party colleague Bohuslav Sobotka said such a configuration was not being discussed by the Social Democrats: he said if they cannot form a government it would be better to go into opposition. The Civic Democrats continue to head the polls four weeks ahead of the elections.

A number of ceremonies have been held in the Czech capital to mark the anniversary of the historic Prague Uprising, which began on May 5th, 1945, a few days before the end of World War II. One of the main events took place on Friday in front of the Czech Radio building on Prague's Vinohradska Street, the scene of some of the bloodiest battles of the uprising. In May 1945 around 30,000 of the city's citizens fought the Nazis over three days, with more than 1,500 losing their lives.

The office of Czech President Vaclav Klaus has revealed that the president has vetoed a bill that would have established a network of non-profit hospitals within the country's health care system. The bill, which would have transformed almost 150 hospitals currently managed by local authorities into public facilities financed from health insurance payments, was passed in April with support from Social Democrat and Communist MPs. It will be returned to the lower house for a new vote. Mr Klaus - a former head of the right-of-centre Civic Democratic Party - has indicated that he opposed the bill on the grounds that it was the wrong approach towards the country's troubled health sector.

The veto comes less than a month before general elections on June 2nd and 3rd: health care reform is considered a major issue in this year's election run-up.

The Czech Army's record contract for 234 armoured transporter vehicles, won last year by Austrian-based Steyr Daimler Puch with a bid of over one billion dollars, faces a legal threat, according to the Czech online news server aktualne.cz. A Prague court ruled this week that the Italian bidder for the contract, Iveco Fiat, was unfairly eliminated during the first round, the server has reported, citing the company's Czech lawyer, Viktor Bradac. According to Mr Bradac, the ruling means that the Ministry of Defence cannot sign the final contract with Steyr, a subsidiary of US defence giant General Dynamics, since - in his view - Iveco is back in the tender.

The Ministry of Defence spokesman so far has said that the ministry can not comment until it receives a written version of the court's decision.