Christian Democrat ministers resign

All three Christian Democrat ministers have handed in their resignations. Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda, Transport Minister Milan Simonovsky and Environment Minister Libor Ambrozek are leaving the cabinet after Wednesday's decision by the Christian Democrats' national conference to quit the governing coalition due to a row over Prime Minister Gross's family finances. President Vaclav Klaus has said he will wait for the results of Friday's no-confidence vote before he decides whether he will accept the resignations.

Prime Minister Gross has already chosen candidates for the three ministerial posts. They are Social Democrat MP Radko Martinek for the post of Environment Minister, the head of the Czech delegation to the EU Jan Kohout for the post of Foreign Minister and the director of the Transportation Fund Pavel Svagr for the post of Transport Minister.