President's secretary: Mr Klaus never called meeting with parliamentary party leaders

The President's secretary, Ladislav Jakl, has said that claims that President Vaclav Klaus has called a meeting with the leaders of all parliamentary parties for next week are false. On Saturday, media reports said that Mr Klaus - taken aback by the recent political turns - called the meeting but stressed he would not intervene in government negotiations. In a televised debate on Sunday, Mr Jakl said the president never made any such plans. In the same debate, Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek also said he knew nothing of such a meeting.

On Saturday, Mr Klaus said the political developments of the last few days had taken him by surprise but also reiterated that politicians should not be held responsible for the political deadlock that the country has been battling since the elections in early June. Their attempts at forming a majority government are hindered by the fact that the number of seats in the lower house of Parliament is evenly divided between the left parties and the centre and right parties, Mr Klaus stressed.