Prime Minister Paroubek faces question-and-answer session in Chamber of Deputies

The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek faced a question-and-answer session in the lower house of parliament on Thursday ahead of Friday's confidence vote in Mr Paroubek's new coalition government. Among the topics that Mr Paroubek had to defend his position on were the privatisation of Czech Telecom and the future leadership of the government's anti-drug commission. Mr Paroubek was named prime minister last month, after his predecessor Stanislav Gross resigned.

While both opposition parties, the right-of-centre Civic Democrats and the Communists, have said they would not support the new coalition in Friday's no-confidence vote, Mr Paroubek is confident that all 101 government deputies in the 200-seat lower house will unanimously vote in favour of the coalition.