Social Democrats ready to continue in coalition, Christian Democrats to wait until Social Democrat party congress

The Prime Minister Stanislav Gross said the Social Democrats were ready to continue in the current three-party coalition government. Speaking after Thursday's coalition meeting, Mr Gross also said he was prepared to publicly apologise to everyone who, as he said, could have been offended by his earlier statements regarding his flat financing scandal. The Christian Democrat Chairman Miroslav Kalousek said his party would not call on the Prime Minister to resign before the Social Democrat party congress at Easter. He said it was up to the Social Democrats to resolve the Prime Minister's scandal themselves.

The Christian Democrats originally called on the prime minister to step down, while many Social Democrats demanded that three Christian Democrats ministers be dismissed from the cabinet. On Wednesday Prime Minister Gross said he will step down if he does not receive the strong backing of the Social Democrats at Saturday's party meeting. Mr Gross has been under pressure for some weeks over his family's private finance, with the affair threatening to bring down the governing coalition.