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Social Democrat MPs present in the Lower House on Wednesday voted unanimously to support the presidential candidacy of university professor Jan Sokol in an upcoming third round of presidential elections. The situation brings the Czech Republic closer to finally electing a successor to Vaclav Havel, after two failed attempts in January. Vaclav Havel stepped down at the beginning of February after 13 years in office. Early on Mr Sokol, who is 66, stipulated he would run only if he gained the full support of all three parties in the governing coalition, the only possibility of putting up a strong challenge to the right-of-centre Civic Democrat candidate Vaclav Klaus. So far both the Freedom Union and the Christian Democrats have reacted positively to Wednesday's developments, so it seems likely Mr Sokol will run against Mr Klaus on February 28th.

European Union leaders on Tuesday met for foreign policy consultations with 13 future members in an effort to diffuse tension sparked by French President Jacques Chirac's verbal attack on the EU candidates on Monday. Mr. Chirac evoked outrage across eastern Europe, when he slammed candidate countries for their stand on the Iraqi crisis, calling them "childish and irresponsible" and telling them they would have done better to "shut up". The hastily convened foreign policy consultations in Brussels produced a common statement calling for a peaceful resolution of the Iraqi crisis but warning Bagdad to disarm or face war as a last resort. In the document current and future EU members promise to "avoid new dividing lines" and vow "joint endeavours" to meet their common goals. The Czech Prime Minister told reporters he welcomed the gesture and stressed the need for present and future EU members to hold foreign policy consultations on important issues.

The Christian Democrats and Freedom Union, the two smaller parties in the Czech governing coalition, have voiced preliminary support for university professor Jan Sokol as their candidate in the third round of presidential elections, due to be held on February 28th. Mr. Sokol, whose nomination was officially approved by the Social Democratic Party leadership on Saturday, appears to be the most acceptable figure so far to the three parties of the governing coalition who, due to their slim majority in parliament, need to unite behind a single candidate. If nominated, Mr. Sokol will stand against the former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, the official candidate of the opposition Civic Democrats. A third failure to elect a new president would most likely tip the scales in favour of direct presidential elections.

Demonstrations against a possible war on Iraq have taken place in a number of Czech cities.Close to a thousand protesters gathered on Wenceslas Square for an anti-war demonstration organized by the Communist party and several hundred people congregated on the Jan Palach Square for a protest organized by the Initiative Against War. The demonstrators carried placards reading "No blood for oil", " Stop the war" and "God said: Thou shall not kill". Similar protests took place in Ostrava and Brno on Saturday, where some 500 people signed an anti-war petition to be presented to Parliament. The protesters demanded that the Czech government and parliament should not wage a war in the name of the Czech people since surveys have shown that close to 70% of Czechs are in favour of a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis.