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The United States and NATO turned to the Czech Republic with a proposal to form the first multi-national battalion for defence against weapons of mass destruction, part of the NATO rapid reaction force. Speaking after meeting with other defence ministers from EU candidate countries in Brussels, Defence Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik said on Monday that the request was the first visible result of the reform of the Czech Army. He said the battalion should be formed immediately so that it could begin in January and be operational mid-way through next

Today's papers are all dominated by domestic stories ranging from Dominik Hasek's aggressive fit during a hockey game to the government's unsuccessful clean hands campaign. NATO's plan to have the Czech Republic establish a new multi-national battalion to protect the alliance against weapons of mass destruction is one of few international stories making the front pages.

The Czech Republic has been asked to contribute to the establishment of NATO's first multi-national battalion for the protection against weapons of mass destruction. The battalion would be part of NATO's rapid reaction forces. Speaking to journalists in Brussels, Czech Defence Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik said preparations for its creation are to start immediately, in order to be ready to serve in operations by the second half of 2004.

The British Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon, visited the Czech Republic earlier this week. During his brief stay Mr Hoon met President Vaclav Klaus, Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda. Secretary Hoon also met his Czech counterpart, Defence Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik, to discuss further Czech involvement in Iraq but also a possible British-Czech air-defence pact.

The Czech Defence Ministry is considering buying used supersonic fighter planes to limit the costs of replacing its Soviet-era MiG jets next year, with five offers now on the table. The government was forced to drop plans to buy 24 new Anglo-Swedish Gripen jets after last year's catastrophic floods. Deputy Defence Minister Jan Vana told Reuters there were currently five offers to sell the country supersonic jets, but that a British offer was in what he called "a more advanced stage". NATO ally Britain has offered the Czech Republic 14 older F-3 Tornado jets, which should be replaced in the British armed forces in the next few years.

Opinion polls indicate that around seventy per cent of the Czech public opposes the war against Iraq. But, just hours after the American-led attack on Iraq began on Thursday morning, I spoke to Roman Joch, one Czech who is part of the other thirty per cent of the population that supports the war. Mr Joch is a political commentator from the Civic Institute in Prague, and he supports the war because he regards Saddam Hussein as a threat to his own people and the world. Mr Joch cites Saddam's Hussein's oppressive regime, his aggressive wars against

A few hours after US and British missiles started falling on Iraq, senior Czech ministers and the prime minister met to discuss the latest dramatic developments. After Wednesday's cabinet meeting the Czech Republic's official position concerning an invasion of Iraq still seemed less than clear. With that invasion now a reality, and Czech troops stationed in Kuwait on full alert, the meeting on Thursday morning was a far more practical affair. Radio Prague's David Vaughan was at a press conference immediately after the meeting. David, to start with,

Four years ago today - on March 12 of 1999 - three former communist bloc countries, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, became fully fledged members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. For Czechs this was a landmark event that cemented the country's return to the free world.

It couldn't have been better timed. Just when all eyes are on France and Germany, the Czech Foreign Ministry on Wednesday hosted a discussion on the two countries' role in the new Europe. The current Czech government comes close to the Franco-German pro-federalist view of European integration, but over Iraq Prague has sided itself with the United States and Britain. During the discussion the Social Democrat MP Libor Roucek, who is also vice-chair of the Czech parliament's European Integration Committee, firmly criticized France and Germany's recent

Angry reactions to French President Jacques Chirac's verbal attack on the EU candidates on Monday are splashed across all of today's front pages. "Chirac's words evoke outrage", "the Czech Republic rejects Chirac's verbal beating" and "why did Chirac attack Washington's allies?" those are some of the headlines in the Czech papers, along with snapshots of Mr. Chirac as Prime Minister in cordial conversation with Saddam Hussein dating back to the 70s when French-Iraqi ties flourished. Predicting this reaction, the Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda