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George Bush came and went. Slovaks are happy that viewers of international TV networks finally got to hear about Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Although, one big American newspaper had problems placing the country on the map - its editors confused Slovakia with Slovenia!

Several thousand farmers, and a few hundred with their tractors, are protesting on Budapest's historic Heroes' Square at what they say is government delay in getting European Union subsidies - known as "direct payments" - to them.

A debate is on in Poland over whether the Polish president should visit Moscow in May for ceremonies marking the anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Red Army over Nazi Germany. The controversy began after the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Poland and other countries of attempts to 'distort the results of the Yalta conference'.

Bratislava will be hosting the summit of Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin next week. But the Slovak capital may seem an unusual location for such a high profile event, especially since just seven years ago, Slovakia was considered something of a pariah in Central Europe under the nationalistic leadership of then Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar.

Since the European Union enlarged in May last year tourists from Western Europe have begun streaming into countries which were once just place names on a map and often associated with the greyness of communism. But the reality is that many of the Central European countries have a natural environment more diverse than Western Europe.

US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at a special summit in the Slovak capital Bratislava next week. They will sign agreements on arms limitation and they'll also explore ways to co-operate in what both countries call "the war on terrorism". Security for the summit will be extremely tight and Slovak authorities reckon they' have found the most secure place of all for the Bush-Putin summit - Bratislava Castle.

Last summer Stanislav Gross became Czech prime minister at just 34 years of age. The youngest leader in Europe, he also enjoyed high personal ratings. But now questions about how he financed the purchase of his luxury home have seriously tarnished his reputation - and pushed the Czech coalition government to the brink. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby has the story.

Unlike Eastern Germany and the Czech Republic, Poland has not dug deep into its files of communist-era secret police and their informers. In fact Poland's first Solidarity government had a 'no questions asked' policy - later changed to allow vetting of top public officials. But finally the cat's out of the bag. A list of former security police spies has been placed on the World Wide Web by a right-wing journalist who smuggled it out of an agency investigating communist-era crimes.

In about four weeks time Croatia should begin negotiations to join the European Union. But there are some strings attached. Zagreb has to hand over a war crimes suspect, wanted by the International tribunal in The Hague, and it has to sort out some border problems with its neighbour, Slovenia.

In Hungary, there's the grim reality of dead animals found in vehicles crossing the Hungarian border. In the most recent case officials found the frozen bodies of 125 birds in a refrigerated trailer. They were estimated to be worth up to 2 million forints - around 10,000 US dollars - on the black market. To illustrate the problem of the illegal trade in endangered species an exhibition of luxury items made from endangered animals opened at the zoo in Pecs, southern Hungary recently.