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President Vaclav Havel has thanked the European Union's commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen for the financial aid the EU has provided to the flood-hit Czech Republic. After meeting President Havel at Prague Castle on Thursday, Mr Verheugen told journalists the European Union had offered the Czech Republic 58 million euro from the funds aimed at supporting candidate countries. The European Investment Bank has offered the country a loan of up to 200 million euro. According to first estimates the Czech Republic has suffered damage worth up to 3 billion euro.

On Wednesday the presidents of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary held a Visegrad summit in the east Bohemia town of Castolovice. Of the Visegrad four, which also includes Slovakia, only the Slovak president Rudolf Schuster was absent, due to illness.

Czech negotiators in Brussels have said the Czech Republic would push to conclude negotiations on entry to the European Union within months despite the record floods which have just swept the country. Petr Jezek, deputy chief EU negotiator at the Czech Foreign Ministry told journalists that the Czech Republic could ill afford any delays if the country wanted to be admitted to the EU in the fist wave of expansion in 2004. "The set target date for concluding the accession talks remains valid" Jezek said. The EU has pledged to divert close to 60 million euros from two programmes normally dedicated to financing reconstruction projects in candidate countries to help the Czech Republic recover from the worst floods ever recorded in the country.

The president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, has visited Prague to assess the situation following the severe floods; on Friday morning, he and Czech President Vaclav Havel flew over some flooded areas by helicopter, and visited an evacuation centre in Litomerice. The European Union has pledged to give the Czech Republic some 58 million euros in aid for the areas affected by the flooding. The money will mostly be spent on repairing infrastructure. Mr Havel thanked Mr Prodi for the solidarity the EU had shown with the Czech Republic.

As water levels recede, revealing the enormity of the destruction wrought by the devastating floods that swept through the Czech Republic, offers of help have started pouring in from around the world. Daniela Lazarova has more :

Offers for financial help have started coming from abroad. Several European countries offered help individually. Besides that, the European Commissioner for enlargement..

The name of the former Foreign Minister Jan Kavan has recently been appearing in the media mainly in connection with an alleged murder plot involving Mr Kavan's former senior aide at the Ministry. But the scandal has overshadowed the fact that Mr Kavan is soon to assume a senior post in the United Nations. Last month, Jan Kavan was elected President of the UN General Assembly for the coming year. Before he assumes his role as President upon the opening of the 57th session on September 10, Mr Kavan is busy preparing for his new responsibilities.

A poll conducted in neighbouring Austria by the Austrian Society for European Policy showed that the Czech Republic is the least popular post-Communist candidate for EU enlargement. Whilst 61% of respondents supported Hungary's accession to the EU, only 41% accepted the Czech Republic and Poland as future EU member states. According to the Austrian Society for European Policy, the main reason stated for the low support was the lack of contact in the past. Prague was also not forgiven for supporting EU sanctions against Vienna after the far-right Freedom Party joined the Austrian cabinet in 2000.

Former foreign minister Jan Kavan has said he is to resign from his post in the European Union Convention, the body laying the foundations for EU expansion and reform. The resignation comes two weeks after one of Mr Kavan's former aides was arrested in an alleged plot to kill a journalist, although Mr Kavan denied there was any connection with the case. He said he was giving up the post to allow more time for his positions as chairman of the U.N. General Assembly and M.P in the lower house.

The Czech Republic could start using the euro by 2010, Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Tuesday. To meet the Masstricht criteria necessary to adopt the euro...