Prague - The Czech parliament's lower house Wednesday postponed an initial vote on Czech-US treaties that allow the United States to place a missile defence facility on Czech soil.

The house adjourned a debate on the US project and may return to the issue on Thursday.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek lacks a majority for the US plans in the closely divided 200-seat chamber.

Prague - The opposition Social Democratic Party issued a shockingly heavy blow to Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in the Czech Republic's regional and Senate elections, final results showed Saturday. 

As a consequence Topolanek's position as a party leader and possibly as a premier looked shaky just 10 weeks before his country takes over the European Union's rotating presidency. 

The Social Democrats took all 13 regions where voting took place, their first such success since 2000 when regions came to existence, the Czech Statistical Office said. 

Prague - As the last votes in regional and Senate elections in the Czech Republic were counted Saturday, the opposition Social Democratic Party looked as if they had issued a heavy blow to Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

"The voters want change," Social Democratic leader Jiri Paroubek told the public broadcaster Czech Television.

The Social Democrats took all 13 regions where voting took place, their first such success since 2000.

Prague - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek welcomed Washington's decision, announced Friday by US President George W Bush, to allow Czechs to travel to the United States without visas.

The new policy is set to go into effect within a month.

"It is virtually the largest success we could have achieved. It lifts the last relic of communism and the Cold War. I am thus very happy," Topolanek said in a statement.

Prague - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who is scheduled to be the next European Union president, has condemned the EU's steps to fight the global financial crisis as too interventionist.

"All these measures are absolutely artificial. They contradict the EU's substance," the CTK news agency quoted Topolanek as saying late Wednesday during a visit to Turkey.

"And I have to say it is a huge disappointment. What happened in recent days has damaged confidence in the EU more than anything else," CTK cited him as saying.