Social Democrat's Stanislav Gross to continue meeting with other party leaders towards forming a new government

Social Democrat party leader Stanislav Gross is due to begin meeting with the heads of the other political parties this week — including the largely unreconstructed Communists — about forming a new government. On Wednesday he will the head of the main opposition Civic Democrats, Mirek Topolanek, and on Thursday, Gross is to hold talks with Communist party leader Miroslav Grebenicek. As the Social Democrat party leader and presumptive next Czech prime minister, Mr Gross has maintained that he will seek to build a cabinet without Communist support. For his part, Mr Grebenicek has said he hopes to influence the policy agenda but denied that the Communists were demanding the post of the Chamber of Deputies chairman in exchange for supporting the next government.