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The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has again spoken out strongly against recent moves taken by the European Union to normalise diplomatic relations with Cuba. In an open letter published on Monday in a leading Czech daily, Mr Havel said that the EU had entered into a "shameful deal" that "spit on all the principles" of democracy and human rights espoused in the draft EU constitution. The EU froze diplomatic relations with Cuba in June 2003 after some 75 dissidents were arrested and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison. But in recent months, Cuba has re-established contacts with EU member states, after they agreed to stop inviting Cuban dissidents to official embassy events. The communist island nation first re-established contact with its closest ally, Spain, and finally with those most hostile to the Cuban regime: the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, as well as the EU as a whole. Vaclav Havel, himself a former dissident who was imprisoned many times by communist officials, is the founder of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, an organisation that supports the families of Cuban dissidents.

Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates will pay a one-day visit to Prague on Wednesday, where he will deliver a speech at the close of the Government Leaders Forum, a kind of talking shop for information and communication technology insiders and leading politicians, sponsored by the U.S. software giant. About a dozen current and former heads of government and European Commissioners are expected to attend. While in Prague, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is due to meet separately with Czech president Vaclav Klaus.

Czech military police may stay in Iraq longer than previously expected, the foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, said on Sunday. The Czech parliament recently voted to extend the mission of the unit until the end of this year. But Mr Svoboda said they would remain in the country as long as the Iraqi government considered their presence "useful and beneficial". Around 100 Czech soldiers are training local police officers in the south of the country.

The prime minister, Stanislav Gross, says he plans to sue the newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes for its reporting of his personal finances; the daily said Mr Gross had not officially earned enough to cover the cost of his luxury flat in Prague. The prime minister on Saturday presented tax documents which he said proved he had earned more than the price of the property. But he refused to discuss a loan he says he took from his uncle, who says he borrowed the money from other relatives outside the Czech Republic.