Zeman meets defeated rival for president Schwarzenberg

The Czech president-elect, Miloš Zelman, has held talks with the foreign minister and TOP 09 chairman, Karel Schwarzenberg, who he defeated in an election two weeks ago to succeed Václav Klaus as head of state. Mr. Schwarzenberg said after Friday’s meeting that the two had discussed issues surrounding Czech foreign policy, including the question of who will become the country’s ambassador to Moscow; there has been speculation that the post will be filled by Vladimír Remek, the only ever Czechoslovak cosmonaut and a Communist Party MEP. Minister Schwarzenberg said he and the new president were likely to disagree over Kosovo. Mr. Zeman, a former Social Democrat prime minister, will be inaugurated in a ceremony at Prague Castle on March 8. He has been holding talks with party leaders in the last week.