Bonn, Germany - Human rights issues are not adequately discussed in the European Union, former Czech president Vaclav Havel told reporters in Bonn Friday, just before he was handed a 10,000- euro (13,000-dollar) democracy prize.

Havel, 72, said public debate focussed too much on economic topics and not enough on rights and freedoms.

Prague  - The new Israeli government is prepared to respect a two-state solution in its conflict with the Palestinians, former Czech president Vaclav Havel was reported saying Tuesday after meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Havel said Peres provided the assurances after Havel expressed concerns that the new Israeli government will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state because the new Israeli government's coalition includes parties which have rejected compromises toward the Palestinians.

Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel was released from a Prague hospital on Thursday, nearly three weeks after he was admitted with a throat inflammation.

"His condition has improved so that we can release him to home care," said Martina Pelichovska, a member of the medical team that treated the former president.

The 72-year-old playwright underwent a minor throat operation on January 12, but phlegm subsequently clogged his weakened right lung.

The resulting pneumonia threatened Havel's life and he remained in intensive care during the entire hospital stay, doctors said Thursday.

Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel's condition has improved slightly but remained serious, doctors said Thursday, three days after he was admitted to a Prague hospital with throat inflammation.

Doctors said that antibiotics helped to suppress inflammation in Havel's throat after a minor operation on Monday, in which surgeons removed a septic cavity.

The 72-year-old was sleeping well and reading newspapers in hospital, the doctors said. Havel would, however, remain in intensive care as he needed to wear a respiratory mask to aid his breathing, him with breathing, the hospital unit's head Martina Pelechovska.

Prague  - Former Czech president and playwright Vaclav Havel, an icon of anti-communist resistance, has been treated in a Prague hospital with "an inflammatory illness," his office said Tuesday.

Havel underwent an operation at hospital's otorhinolaryngology clinic, hospital spokeswoman Eva Jurinova said. She said his condition was "stabilized, nevertheless serious."

Neither the hospital, to which Havel was admitted Monday, nor Havel's office would provide further details.

Prague  - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has agreed to work with Czech-American film director Milos Forman on his planned new film, Havel's office confirmed Thursday.

Havel, a communist-era dissident playwright, has cooperated on a screenplay with Forman for a film about the 1938 Munich Conference, in which Czechoslovak allies allowed Hitler to annex the country's German-inhabited border regions.

Czechs view the deal, signed on September 30 by France, Germany, Italy and Britain, as a betrayal by the French who failed to honour military alliances between Paris and Prague.