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Politicians in fighting poses appear on several front pages today: there's a big photo of President Vaclav Klaus on the front page of MLADA FRONTA DNES, to illustrate a story on the forthcoming inter-governmental conference on the future of Europe, which he's not going to. LIDOVE NOVINY meanwhile features rough-and-ready rebel MP Petr Kott, the man who may or may not have been paralytic in parliament last week.

With the Czech Republic expecting to become a fully-fledged member of the European Union next May, one of the main topics of discussion among the country's academics has been the fear of a loss of Czech identity. Prague's Academia bookstore has just hosted a discussion forum at which respected historians and social scientists debated the importance and popularity of Czech national symbols today. One of the main speakers was historian and current deputy-prime minister Petr Mares:

Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Four - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - met at Dobris Chateau outside Prague on Wednesday, ahead of the inter-governmental conference (or IGC) on the future of Europe. The Visegrad Four are part of a much larger group of countries unhappy with the terms of the draft EU constitution to be discussed at the IGC, which gets underway in Rome on Saturday. The Visegrad Four agreed on a number of key demands they want to table in Rome, chief among them being the "one country, one commissioner" principle.

The news that President Vaclav Klaus will not attend the intergovernmental EU Conference in Rome on the future of the EU constitution is splashed across most front pages. The President's views on EU integration -and the fact that they clash with those of the Czech government and most European statesmen is well known and many commentators appear to find the news of his absence in Rome a relief.

The prime ministers of the 'Visegrad Four' countries have met in the Czech town of Dobris. The leaders of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia met to discuss the future of the European Union, ahead of a key intergovernmental conference in Rome. The conference takes place Saturday and is aimed at reworking and harmonising elements of the EU draft constitution. The four Visegrad countries, including the Czech Republic, are slated to join the European Union next May as a part of the EU's ten country expansion.

Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has also addressed some of the challenges of the up-coming intergovernmental conference: on Wednesday he indicated points the Czech delegation will push for in Rome. Among them is the request for a continued rotating presidency of the European Council. The Czechs are also recommending, for example, the threshold for majority voting in the Council of Ministers be raised to representing 60 percent of all EU countries and the population of the EU. Mr Spidla indicated Wednesday that the delegation considered vital that the transition of competencies, between the EU and member states, be ratified by national parliaments.

Meanwhile, President Vaclav Klaus surprised some observers on Wednesday when he said he would not attend the opening of the intergovernmental conference in Rome. Speaking after talks on the Czech delegation's mandate Wednesday morning, Mr Klaus said he would not be going because - in his view - there was too little time at the conference to discuss the proposed EU constitution in detail. The president said he would leave the presentation of the Czech position up to the prime minister alone. In recent days the president had criticised the EU's draft constitution, saying it supported the rise of "a super-state" in which the role of the Czech Republic would be marginal. The president did indicate on Wednesday that he and the prime minister had managed "at least a little" to streamline the Czech position.

Prime Ministers of the so-called "Visegrad Four" are meeting at a chateau outside Prague on Wednesday, for talks ahead of the inter-governmental conference (IGC) on the draft EU constitution. The V4 meeting, bringing together the premiers of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, is an attempt to co-ordinate the positions of the four Visegrad countries before the IGC gets underway in Rome. Rob Cameron reports.

President Vaclav Klaus has said the Czech government has not done enough to explain the possible consequences of a planned European Union constitution to the public. Speaking after talks with the Polish prime minister, Leszek Miller, who is in Prague on an official visit, Mr Klaus said both the Czech Republic and Poland needed to ensure they had a fair degree of power in the Union.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has criticised the European constitution, as put forward by the EU Convention on the Future of Europe, saying it supported the rise of a superstate, in which the Czech Republic would have little influence. The draft constitution was designed to allow the EU function more effectively after it expands from 15 to 25 member states next May but Mr Klaus warned it would rather deepen the gap between people and decision-makers. Its approval, he added, would be a big step towards the creation of a federal or even supra-national state. The Czech President is not the only one to criticise the draft. Smaller current and future EU member states have all expressed concern that the European constitution, in its current form, only benefited the bigger states.