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The Czech Chamber of Commerce has called on the Minister of Trade and Industry Martin Riman to abolish foreign investment incentives. The chairman of the chamber Jaromir Drabek said on Wednesday that incentives used to attract investment such as tax breaks and financial support for job creation gave many foreign firms an unfair advantage on the Czech market. He also added that many local businesses were suffering because they could not hold on to qualified personnel who were going to work for incoming foreign companies.

Mr Riman for his part said he himself agreed with most of Mr Drabek's concerns but that there was currently not enough political support in the government for a complete abolition of investment incentives. Nevertheless, he did say that legislation had been introduced in the spring which was meant to tighten up the investment incentive system and that the effect of these new laws would assessed at the start of next year.

The government has approved a plan to fight the existence of Romany ghettos. Dzamila Stehlikova, minister for human rights and minorities told journalists on Tuesday that a special government agency would start working in ten Czech municipalities where the Roma live in ghettos as of next January. The agency will work with the local authorities, employment offices and Roma inhabitants with the aim of improving living conditions and turning the ghettos into ordinary neighbourhoods. The government agency against social exclusion is to have 15 employees. Several dozen million crowns have been earmarked for its projects next year. Following its pilot phase the project is to expand to other towns and cities.

Former Social Democrat leader Milos Zeman has expressed support for his one-time rival Vaclav Klaus in the 2008 presidential elections. Milos Zeman himself was Vaclav Klaus' main rival in the 2003 presidential elections but lost due to a lack of support from his own party deputies. Now he has urged politicians, particularly those of the Social Democratic Party, to support Mr. Klaus' re-election. Zeman said Vaclav Klaus had proved to be a good president and was certainly the best among those being considered. Although Mr. Klaus is the strongest candidate in this race, his re-election is far from certain. The ruling Civic Democratic Party has promised to support him but the other parties in Parliament are still trying to agree on a rival candidate.

The Czech-Austrian parliamentary commission set up to address nuclear safety concerns in connection with the Temelin nuclear power plant in south Bohemia has run into serious problems. Milan Urban, one of the Czech representatives on the commission, refused to attend its second session after Austrian members of the commission refused to visit the Temelin nuclear power plant. Mr. Urban said the session would be an exercise in futility since the Austrian representatives only used the meetings to criticize the Czech side from afar. Two Austrian representatives walked out of the joint session on Monday after the commission's chairman excluded an anti nuclear activist from the debate on the grounds that it was a forum for experts not protesters. The two countries have been locked in a dispute over the Temelin power plant ever since it went into operation in the year 2,000.