Talks on forming a new government to start Thursday

President Vaclav Klaus has said he plans to hold talks with the leaders of three parliamentary parties before deciding whom to commission with forming a new Czech government. They are the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the opposition Civic Democrats. The talks are to begin on Thursday following the resignation of the present Cabinet. The standard procedure would be for the President to give this task to the head of the strongest party in parliament, currently acting chairman of the Social Democrats Stanislav Gross, but the Constitution allows him to make a different choice should he find it to be politically justified. Mr. Gross has indicated that he is ready for the task and is confident that he could form a viable cabinet which could remain in office until the next general elections, which are due in 2006. Meanwhile, the opposition Civic Democrats, who won the elections to the European Parliament, are pushing for early elections on home ground as well, possibly in the middle of next year.