President appoints new chief-of-staff

President Vaclav Klaus has appointed Vlastimil Picek as the new Czech military chief-of-staff. Mr Picek, the former head of the President's Military Office, is replacing Pavel Stefka whose term of office expired this year. Mr Picek's main task as chief-of-staff will be to carry on with the reform of the Czech military and participate in discussions on the planned stationing of a US radar base in the Czech Republic.