Leaders of the two largest parties may have already met behind closed doors

Czech Television reports that the leaders of the two largest political parties in the Czech Republic met behind closed doors on Tuesday evening. Mirek Topolanek, the leader of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats who won the largest number of seats in last weekend's election, and his rival, Jiri Paroubek, the current prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats, are said to have held an unofficial meeting to exchange their basic negotiating positions in the wake of a tense election. But both men deny that they met on Tuesday and say that they are scheduled to meet, together with their respective negotiating teams, on Friday morning.

The Civic Democratic leadership is currently negotiating coalition agreements with the Christian Democrats and the Green Party, which if successful, will still make for only 100 seats in the 200-seat lower house. These three parties are due to meet for formal talks on Thursday.

Meanwhile, President Klaus has invited Mr. Paroubek to Prague Castle for post-election consultations on Thursday. The president made a televised speech last Saturday night, criticizing the immediate post-election remarks of Mr. Paroubek, in which the Social Democratic leader compared the election results to the communist coup of February 1948.