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Meanwhile, the Social Democrat leadership is expected to bring forward the date of the party's central committee meeting to next weekend, when Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla will likely face a no-confidence motion as party leader. The meeting had been scheduled for the 11th of July. Mr Spidla is expected to lose the party chairmanship and may also be pressured to resign as prime minister. The Social Democrat party was routed in the European Parliament elections last weekend, placing fifth overall and popular support of his coalition government has plummeted in recent months.

The Czech Republic's nuclear power station at Temelin went back on line on Friday after a two week shutdown, power plant officials said. One of the plant's reactors had to be taken off line on the 6th of June due to a fault in an electricity transformer, which caused three cubic metres of radioactive water to leak out of the primary circuit of the second unit. The Czech nuclear safety authority described the leak as a "minor" incident and Temelin officials have protested the subsequent surprise visit of an inspection team dispatched by the European Commission.

The Social Democrat leadership is due to meet on Saturday to discuss Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla's tenure as party chairman just a week after his government was routed in the European Parliament elections. Many of Mr Spidla's own party officials are openly urging him to step down, and say the longer he hangs on, the greater the chances are the party will force him to quit — and ultimately push him out as prime minister as well. If Mr Spidla does not quit as chairman, he will face a vote of confidence in the Central Executive Committee, the highest party organ between congresses. Prime Minister Spidla called the session for July 11. He also faces the threat of the smallest coalition party, the Freedom Union, quitting after poor election showing last week, and a no-confidence vote planned by the main opposition Civic Democrats.

The former Czech President, Vaclav Havel, has said that the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea should jointly confront the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to compel him to respect basic human rights. Calling Kim Jong Il the "world's worst totalitarian dictator" for being "responsible for the loss of millions of lives," Mr Havel cited accounts of repression by North Korean refugees that had been verified by modern satellite images. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post newspaper, Mr Havel urged the four democratic powers to take a common position and make it clear to Kim Jong Il that "respect for basic human rights is an integral part of any future discussions with Pyongyang". Last week, the Czech Republic reopened its embassy to North Korea. The Czechoslovak embassy to Pyongyang was closed in the early 1990s.