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President Klaus has urged a speedy resolution of the Czech government crisis. On Thursday he held a series of high level consultations with political leaders in an effort to help break the deadlock. A reconciliation attempt between the two feuding parties in government broke down on Wednesday, with both sides reiterating their earlier positions. The Prime Minister Stanislav Gross said that if the Christian Democrats could not accept him as head of Cabinet their ministers should resign from office. Christian Democrat leader Miroslav Kalousek said the Prime Minister himself should resign in the wake of a scandal over his private finances which he said was discrediting the entire Czech Cabinet. The third party in the governing coalition, the Freedom Union has distanced itself from the feud.

The leader of the opposition Civic Democratic Party Mirek Topolanek, who also conferred with the President, said the Civic Democrats would only support a solution leading to early elections. Earlier today the party rejected speculation that it would support a minority Social Democrat government in return for the approval of a majority -first-past the post - electoral system which it is known to favour. The opposition Civic Democrats say that whatever the outcome of the government crisis, barring early elections, the government should ask for a vote of confidence in Parliament. Senior party member Vlastimil Tlusty said that if the government itself failed to act in this respect, the Civic Democrats would not hesitate to initiate a no-confidence vote. In a no-confidence vote 101 of the 200 deputies in the lower house would have to vote against the government to bring it down. The governing coalition now has a slim 101 vote majority in Parliament.

Christian Democrat leader Miroslav Kalousek has made public the name of the man from whom he borrowed money to build his home in Bechyne, south Bohemia in 1997. The loan was allegedly provided by his brother in law, a businessman who was murdered several years later. Kalousek said that he was hesitant to make the information public for fear of the impact this could have on his family but that he now felt it was important to make his financial affairs transparent.

The Czech judiciary is expecting over half a million lawsuits to be filed by Czech Television against licence fee dodgers. According to the President of the Czech Union of Judges, Jaromir Jirsa, the first wave is expected in April, other, smaller ones will follow.

During consultations with the President on Thursday, Prime Minister Stanislav Gross submitted several possible solutions to the crisis. He said a solution must be found and those who could make it happen should act. The Prime Minister said that he did not see much hope for the present coalition, given the Christian Democrat's stance and that he was prepared to negotiate with all parties in Parliament. He has not, for the present, asked President Klaus to dismiss the three Christian Democrat ministers.

Meanwhile, the Christian Democrat leader Miroslav Kalousek told President Klaus that his party did not want to break up the coalition and intended to "tone down its rhetoric" in the coming days and weeks.

The state will not expropriate the restaurant building and the land adjoining the premises of Prague's National Theatre as the lower house of parliament has rejected a Communist-sponsored bill which would allow for the expropriation. The bill was only short of 10 votes to be passed. Opponents of the nationalisation said that by passing the bill the country would set a very dangerous precedent. In 1990, the Czechoslovak parliament adjudged the restaurant building with a large underground technical complex serving the National Theatre to the Order of St Ursula by mistake. The Order owned the land under the building before World War Two. Later, it sold the building to the firm Themos, which has been locked in a protracted dispute with the theatre. The loss of the facilities has caused significant problems to the actors and theatre staff.

Around 200 people gathered outside the government headquarters building on Wednesday afternoon demanding that the Prime Minister Stanislav Gross step down. The protesters said that the Prime Minister did not give sufficient explanation of the origin of the money he used to pay for his luxury flat in Prague, nor did he explain his wife's business activities and the activities of special police teams he founded in recent years as Interior Minister.

The protest took place amid an ongoing government crisis. The coalition parties are due to meet later on Wednesday to discuss the current situation. The chairman of the Christian Democrats Miroslav Kalousek has called on Stanislav Gross to step down over his flat-financing scandal. However, Mr Gross has told the Christian Democrats to either back down or leave the cabinet.

The lower house has passed a bill on renewable sources of energy despite protests from the opposition Civic Democratic Party. Under the bill small power stations would be guaranteed fixed state purchasing prices of electricity for fifteen years. The government says the bill had been expected by private investors who will help the Czech Republic meet the European Union's demand to produce eight percent of all power from renewable sources by 2010. Currently, only two percent of energy produced in the Czech Republic comes from renewable sources. The Civic Democrats argue that nuclear and coal power are much cheaper and the involvement of alternative sources would deform the market. The bill has yet to be passed by the Senate and signed by the president.

The Czech mobile operator Oskar Mobil said on Wednesday it had been awarded the country's third 3G (third generation) licence. The Czech Telecommunications Office declared a tender for the country's third 3G licence using UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) technology in mid-January but said it would give preference to Oskar, offering it the licence for two billion crowns (88 million dollars). Oskar Mobil, the smallest and newest mobile operator on the Czech market with 17 percent market share, is the only one of the country's three mobile operators which did not hold a 3G licence to date. Third generation technology is designed to provide e-mail, high-speed internet surfing and live sound image broadcasting to compatible handsets.

The lower house of parliament has passed a bill under which the Czech Republic should pay compensation to victims of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia between 1968 and 1991. The bill awards 150,000 crowns (6,631 dollars) to the families of dozens of people killed in the invasion, and smaller amounts to people injured or raped. Soviet troops and soldiers from four other communist countries invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968, to halt a liberalisation movement led by Czechoslovak Communist party chief Alexander Dubcek. After the invasion, the Soviet Union helped install a hard-line leadership which dismissed reformers from the party and jobs, and suppressed human rights and opposition movements. Soviet troops stayed in Czechoslovakia until 1991. The bill must still win the backing of the Senate.