News

Star Czech football midfielder Pavel Nedved has not yet recovered from a knee injury he suffered in the semi-final of the Euro 2004 championship in July. Mr Nedved, who plays for Italy's Juventus Turin, will therefore be unable to help his side in an upcoming qualification game for the Champions League. Meanwhile, Czech striker, Milan Baros, is not likely to start in his side's bid against Austria's AK Graz in a qualification game for the Champions League on Tuesday. Baros, who plays for Liverpool, scored the most goals at Euro 2004, but is reportedly being overshadowed by newly-acquired striker Djibril Cisse.

President Vaclav Klaus has criticised as "toothless" the policies outlined in the coalition agreement between the three parties in the new government. Speaking on Czech Television on Sunday, Mr Klaus said the agreement was vague and did not make the government's top policy priorities clear.

The President also took the opportunity to take a swipe at the opposition Civic Democrats, saying they should have reacted to the new government more quickly. Mr Klaus said the party, of which he is honorary chairman, should be more concerned with the present than possible future developments.

On the issue of former prime minister Vladimir Spidla being chosen as the Czech Republic's next European commissioner, President Klaus was highly critical, saying it was a "con" and a "mistake". Mr Spidla was given the job ahead of Pavel Telicka, the man he himself had chosen to represent the country on the European Commission. The former prime minister will take over from Mr Telicka in November.

Hope was fading on Sunday for any remaining mountaineers - many of them believed to be Czechs - trapped by avalanches high on a mountainside in Kyrgyzstan, a local official said. Five Czechs and one Russian were confirmed killed on Thursday after avalanches on the 7,000-metre Khan-Tengri peak.

Meanwhile a Czech climber has fallen to his death in the High Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, a mountain rescue worker said on Sunday. Ten Czech mountaineers have died in the Tatras this year.

President Vaclav Klaus has criticised the approach taken by the party he founded, the Civic Democrats, during the recent government crisis, according to Saturday's edition of the newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes. The daily said the President believed the intransigence of party chairman, Mirek Topolanek, was to blame for allowing the three parties in the out-going coalition to form a new government. Mr Topolanek became leader of the Civic Democrats in December 2002, after Mr Klaus had been at the helm for 12 years. President Klaus is the party's honorary chairman.