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President Klaus has said he will not accept Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's resignation until the new lower house of parliament is fully functional. The prime minister announced this week that he would tender his resignation on Monday, triggering the fall of his government and opening the way for a new administration. However the balance of forces in the lower house -where the centre-left and centre right now have 100 seats each - has made it impossible to elect a new leadership and will make it difficult for the centre-right coalition headed by the Civic Democrats to be voted into office. President Klaus said that it would be utterly irresponsible to accept the prime minister's resignation under such circumstances.

The Czech Hydro-meteorological Institute issued a severe flood alert for areas near the southern border with Austria and Slovakia on Friday after heavy rains raised rivers to dangerous levels. The weather service said more rain was on the way during the weekend, and would put further pressure on swollen rivers that have already burst their banks in several areas, some of which were just starting to return to normal after floods in 1997. It gave the most serious flood warning for the Dyje river in the southeast. A number of villages have been already been flooded, others are on high alert and people have been erecting sand barriers to try and protect their property.

The 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opens in the west Bohemian spa town on Friday evening. A total of 230 films and documentaries will be presented at the festival, including the world premiere of Korean director Kim Ki-Duk's latest work, "Time." The Czech film industry, which boycotted the Cannes film festival to protest a lack of state subsidies, says it will nonetheless attend the country's premier film event, an industry official said. Czech producers and directors are due to meet with Civic Democratic Party leader Mirek Topolanek, who is widely expected to be the country's next prime minister, on Saturday to discuss public funding schemes for the industry.

The election of a new lower house speaker, which was scheduled to take place shortly before noon on Thursday, was delayed as deputies waged a war of words for almost two hours. The debate was triggered by outgoing Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek who criticised terms of a new coalition agreement between the Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats, and the Greens. Mr Paroubek opposed the coalition's plans to introduce flat tax and also rejected their health reform and foreign policy plans.

The Civic Democrats' candidate for the post of lower house speaker, Miroslava Nemcova, was also under attack. To Mr Paroubek, Mrs Nemcova is a fanatic. Social Democrat Health Minister David Rath pointed out that Mrs Nemcova has in the past permitted her family the unauthorised use of her official car: "Whoever leads the lower house needs to be on top of things and broad-minded and not someone who steals rolls in a grocery store," he said.