Political agreement "in the making"

Following a meeting with the leaders of five parliamentary parties on Friday President Klaus indicated that a solution to the country's political crisis was "in the making". The president said that the party leaders had reached "a fragile agreement on a possible solution" which still needed to be approved by their respective party leaderships and that there were many questions left open. Mr. Klaus did not disclose any details of what such an agreement would entail. He said another meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday when he hoped party leaders would be able to seal the deal.

Citing an unnamed, well-informed source at Prague Castle, the internet server Novinky.cz claims that the agreement in question is a government of all parliamentary parties except the Communists which would lead the country to early elections in 2008. Such a government would be made up of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats, the Greens and the Social Democrats.