Czech government in trouble

A deal between three Czech political parties yesterday to form a new Cabinet appeared to unravel only hours after being clinched when Prime Minister Stanislav Gross's Social Democrats failed to approve it.

The resignation of Gross and the formation of a new government was a condition for the Christian Democrats to rejoin the governing coalition it quit over a financial scandal engulfing the Prime Minister.

Their departure stripped the coalition government of its majority in Parliament and threw Czech politics into crisis.

Mr Gross's party leadership voted against a deal clinched in the early hours yesterday that would have opened the way for Mr Gross to give up his post in favour of a new prime minister.

Any deal to form a new government would avert the possibility of an early general election - something the Social Democrats would like to avoid given their poor standing in recent polls.