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Early in June US President George W. Bush will visit the Czech Republic. The American Head of State will be meeting with his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus and other senior politicians. Washington's visa policy and its plans to build a radar station on Czech soil are topics expected to be discussed the most. To get the US position on both issues ahead of Mr Bush's visit, our colleague Daniel Raus from Czech Radio 6 met with the US Ambassador to Prague Richard Graber.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who is on a three-day official visit to Georgia, has said the Czech Republic supports the country's effort to join the European Union and NATO. Speaking after a meeting with his Georgian counterpart Zurab Noghaideli on Friday, Mr Topolanek said that other topics discussed included trade relations and energy issues. Mirek Topolanek is the first Czech prime minister to visit independent Georgia.

The head of the U.S. Missile Defence Agency Lieutenant General Henry Obering paid a visit to Prague on Monday to drum up support for a plan to place an American radar station on Czech territory. The U.S. has already made a formal request to the Czechs for them to host the facility as part of its missile defence shield. Now the tortuous process of discussing technical details and winning crucial political approval is underway.

On Monday, the news was announced that former Russian President Boris Yeltsin had died of heart failure aged 76. Throughout the world, Boris Yeltsin will be remembered as the man who dismantled the Soviet Union and led Russia in its first chaotic years of independence. The 1990s were also the first years of renewed democratic rule in this country, which had been a Soviet satellite for many years. Radio Prague spoke to Oldrich Bures, a lecturer at Palacky University in Olomouc, about the role of Boris Yeltsin in the formation of post-Soviet Czech-Russian

The United States consulted NATO allies on Thursday on plans for its missile shield in Europe before fielding complaints from Russia, which is wary about Washington's intentions. Deputy foreign minister Tomas Pojar and deputy defence minister Martin Bartak took part in the talks on behalf of the Czech Republic. The meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels are the highest-level talks so far on the US shield, to include 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic linked to an advance warning system in the Caucasus. The United States says the system is aimed at protecting its territory, but also many NATO allies, from missile attack by a "rogue state" like Iran.

The head of the US Missile Defense Agency, Henry Obering, is expected to discuss the possible stationing of a US radar base in the Czech Republic with Czech deputies and senators in Prague on Monday. According to lower house defence committee chairman, Jan Vidim, Mr Obering wants to discuss the issue with Czech lawmakers before meeting the Czech National Security Council members later on Monday. The Czech Republic officially launched negotiations with the United States about the radar base in late March. A definitive decision on the project is up to parliament where its supporters do not have a clear majority. The radar construction is opposed by most Social Democrat lawmakers and by the opposition Communists. This week, a delegation of Czech MPs visited the Marshall Islands to see the local missile defence radar that would possibly be transferred to the Czech Republic.

Green Party leader Martin Bursik has said that the Czech Republic's response to an American request to build an anti-missile radar base in the country should contain a proviso that the facility will become part of NATO's common defence system in the future. Speaking during a discussion programme on Czech Television on Sunday, Mr Bursik said that his party's support for the base was contingent on its being implemented within a NATO framework. The government is to send an official response to Washington's request to build a radar base in the Czech Republic by the end of March.

A German government spokesman said on Monday that NATO needs to discuss whether Iran represents a severe enough security threat to justify deployment of a US missile shield in Eastern Europe. The United States wants to deploy a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, a plan that has enraged Moscow and threatens to divide Europe. Washington says the system is needed to counter the threat posed by Iran.

The US Lieutenant General Henry Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, has said the United States is open to European demands that a missile shield system it plans to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic be brought under NATO. Mr Obering said on Thursday he would not be averse to the shield being integrated into NATO's defensive capabilities.

The United States says the missile shield is meant to protect Europe and US forces there from missiles fired by what Washington calls "rogue states", such as Iran and North Korea. Senior European officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, have called for the missile defence issue to be debated within the Alliance rather than on a bilateral basis.

The United States' plan to extend its missile defence system to Central Europe has not only angered its old Cold War adversary Russia, it's also prompted a lively debate in the countries that would be on the sharp end of it. If all goes to plan, Poland would host an interceptor base - meant to shoot down incoming missiles from countries such as Iran - while the Czech Republic would host a radar station - meant to track those missiles as soon as they break cloud cover. The Czech government has said a cautious "yes" to the facility, which would be