Civic Democrat leader briefs president on coalition talks

Civic Democrat leader Petr Nečas met with Czech President Václav Klaus on Friday morning to brief him about progress in the talks on forming a centre-right coalition government. Mr Nečas is leading the talks between his Civic Democratic Party, TOP 09 and Public Affairs, whose strong showing in the recent general elections would give them a comfortable 118-seat majority in the 200-strong lower house of Parliament. The two agreed on the need to form a government in such a way as to begin drafting a state budget for next year by the middle of July. Mr Nečas said ahead of the meeting with the president that the coalition talks were going well and he expected an agreement by the end of the month.