News

Eleven Iraqi children are recovering from surgery in Czech hospitals. The Motol hospital spokeswoman Eva Jurinova said there had so far been no complications and the project of helping Iraqi children with serious inborn defects was going according to plan. The children, many of whom have serious heart defects, were diagnosed by doctors at the Czech field hospital in Basra, southern Iraq. They had no hope of getting adequate medical care in their own country. A group of four more children are expected in Prague shortly.

Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has voiced his belief that EU members and candidates will soon be able to finalise the text of the EU constitution. Speeking at Saturday's meeting of representatives of the 15 European Union member states and the ten accession countries in Rome, Mr Spidla cited several points in which the Czech Republic will demand changes to the proposed constitution, as drafted by the European Union Convention. The Czech government expects the inter-governmental conference, which started on Saturday, to provide space for raising especially those issues relating to the balance of European Union institutions, equality of EU members and cohesion of the EU. The Czech Republic wants every country to appoint one full-fledged commissioner even after 2009. Mr Spidla demanded that the rotation of countries at the head of the Council of Ministers be clarified. He spoke in favour of a team rotation chairmanship.

President Vaclav Klaus has attacked the Office of the Ombudsman, saying it was little more than a cushy job for retired politicians. Speaking on Czech Radio Mr Klaus said the Ombudsman, which defends civil and legal rights in the Czech Republic, had done almost nothing in the three years since it was established. The Ombudsman himself, former justice minister Otakar Motejl, has declined to comment on the president's outburst.

Meanwhile, President Vaclav Klaus surprised some observers on Wednesday when he said he would not attend the opening of the intergovernmental conference in Rome. Speaking after talks on the Czech delegation's mandate Wednesday morning, Mr Klaus said he would not be going because - in his view - there was too little time at the conference to discuss the proposed EU constitution in detail. The president said he would leave the presentation of the Czech position up to the prime minister alone. In recent days the president had criticised the EU's draft constitution, saying it supported the rise of "a super-state" in which the role of the Czech Republic would be marginal. The president did indicate on Wednesday that he and the prime minister had managed "at least a little" to streamline the Czech position.