Czech president to name new government on Monday

PRAGUE, Sep 1 (Reuters) The Czech Republic will get a new government on Monday, three months after an inconclusive election, but the new team lacks parliamentary support and the political stalemate seems set to continue for weeks or months.

President Vaclav Klaus said today he would appoint a minority right-wing government led by Mirek Topolanek, chief of the Civic Democrats who won the June polls.

Topolanek has said he wanted to rule only until an early election he would like to hold in the spring of next year.

But he lacks support for both his cabinet and the election plan in the lower house of parliament, and his team seems likely to lose a confidence vote prescribed by the constitution within a month of appointment.

Klaus rejected to comment on Topolanek's frail chances.

''I will appoint this cabinet...as a normal cabinet with all it takes. Thoughts on how long it will function, if a week or four years, are beside this debate,'' he told reporters.

''I believe the prime minister will do all he can for this whole project to be led to a successful end.'' The Civic Democrats and other centre-right parties won 100 seats in the 200-seat lower house, exactly the same as two left-wing parties, the outgoing Social Democrats and the Communists. Topolanek cannot fully rely on support from any other but his own 81 deputies.

Topolanek said his cabinet would have nine Civic Democrat members and six independents. Vlastimil Tlusty, father of the party's plan to introduce flat tax, is expected to take the Finance Ministry and Alexandr Vondra, former Ambassador to the United States, will likely take the Foreign Ministry.

The political stalemate has affected preparations of the 2007 budget, key for the country's plan to adopt the Euro in 2010. The Civic Democrats have anyway preferred deep fiscal reforms to any commitment on the date of euro entry.

REUTERS BDP PM1526