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Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the country's Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla have agreed on what they termed a common initiative towards the Czech parliament regarding the upcoming European Union enlargement. The two politicians met on Friday at the presidential chateau at Lany to discuss a number of current issues over lunch. Both officials were accompanied by their wives. After their meeting, Mr Klaus and Mr Spidla said they would like to establish a tradition of annual meetings of the president and the prime minister at the beginning of each year.

The Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cyril Svoboda, has warned that the Czech government's decision to acquire Swedish Gripen fighters jets could have a negative effect on Czech-American relations. The CTK news agency quoted unnamed diplomatic sources that this Czech participation in the renewal of Iraq could suffer as a result. On Wednesday, the Czech government decided in favour of the Gripens over U.S.-made F-16s. A few days before, the U.S. ambassador to Prague, Craig Stapleton, had hinted that Czech-American relations could feel an impact if the cabinet selected the Gripens. The government wants to lease 14 new Jas-39 Gripens for over 17 billion crowns for ten years. The modern fighters should replace the ageing Soviet-made MiG-21s by 2005.

Czech footballer Pavel Nedved, mid-fielder for Juventus Turin and captain of the Czech national team, has been voted the best Czech sportsman of the year. Nedved becomes the first football player to be awarded the Czech title. He replaces freestyle aerials skier Ales Valenta on the throne. Cross-country world champion Martin Koukal came in second, while ice hockey player Milan Hejduk was third. In the category of teams, the award was given to the national football team under coach Karel Brueckner. The Best Sportsman of the Year title has been awarded every year since 1959.

The eastward expansion of the European Union will prove a boon to flourishing organised crime groups, the European police agency Europol said in its annual report on organised crime. With border controls relaxing as the EU grows from 15 to 25 countries next May, Mafia-style groups will use new member states as bases for trafficking drugs and people. The report said powerful crime networks were getting increasingly sophisticated, moving away from the traditional, hierarchical model seen in Mafia movies and towards a cell-based structure that made it harder for police to find the top bosses. It said there were signs international crime groups were moving their activities to the EU newcomers, which were also becoming focal points for money laundering.