News

The discovery of extra revenue and lower costs at the year's end has allowed the government to unexpectedly cut its 2002 budget deficit. Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Friday that year-end figures revealed a 2002 deficit totaling 45.7 billion crowns, or 1.5 billion dollars, far below the 62 billion crown deficit approved by parliament. The announcement came in the face of increased pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission, which have criticised the government for failing to spend within its means. Last month parliament passed a 2003 budget with a record-high deficit of 111 billion crowns.

Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has said there is no danger that rising river levels in areas of Bohemia will lead to floods like those which caused devastation in August. Mr Spidla said on Friday that he was aware of the tension which had arisen over the rising river levels in recent days but reassured the public the situation was being constantly monitored and was under control. New anti-flood measures are being prepared and will draw upon 3.7 billion Czech crowns made available by the European Solidarity Fund, said the prime minister. The worst-hit river at the present time is the Vltava, which should be at it's highest in Prague around 10 o'clock on Friday evening.

Prime Minister Spidla said on Friday he expected key negotiations on finding a successor to President Vaclav Havel to take place after a bicameral vote on January 15. Talks between the parties in parliament have not secured sufficient support for any of the official candidates to win at the first attempt. Mr Spidla has in the past not ruled out changing the constitution to allow a direct election if the January 15 vote fails to find a successor to Mr Havel, who steps down at the beginning of February.

Austrian anti-nuclear protesters in the town of Friedstadt have launched a hunger strike to protest the Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear power plant, at a time when technicians at the plant are busy increasing capacity at the nuclear facility. Each of the plant's twin units is expected to be operating at full capacity by April after years of tests and delays, a spokesman for the CEZ power company has said; Unit 1 was idle in December to save fuel, while Unit 2 has been undergoing rotor repairs. The dozen Austrian protesters taking part in the hunger strike say it will last five days. Meanwhile, one organiser said an extended hunger strike would begin in April unless the European Union and the Czech Republic negotiate a new plan for Temelin as part of the EU enlargement treaty. The protest is the first hunger strike in a long series of anti-Temelin demonstrations on the Czech-Austrian border dating from the summer of 2000. Austrian protestors believe the plant is unsafe because it combines Soviet-era with more modern western technology.