RPT-State drops case against Czech deputy PM - reports

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State prosecutors have dropped an investigation into alleged bribe-taking against Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek, local media reported on Monday.

Cunek, leader of the centrist Christian Democrat party, a junior partner in Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's coalition government, had refused to quit since the allegations surfaced at the start of the year, denying any wrongdoing.

The Web site of the daily Lidove noviny (www.lidovky.cz) quoted state prosecutor Arif Salichov as saying the move closes the case on Cunek, who was accused of taking a 500,000 Czech crown ($24,640) bribe from a real estate firm while he was the mayor of an eastern town in 2002.

"In this matter the criminal investigation was stopped," he was quoted as saying. Salichov was not immediately available to confirm the report, his office said he has called a news conference for Tuesday morning.

Cunek was quoted by the CTK news agency as saying he would not comment on the report until he receives any official notification on the matter.

The scandal has overshadowed Topolanek's centre-right government which came to power in January after more than seven months of political wrangling which followed a tie between left and centre-right parties in last June's parliamentary election.

Topolanek had refused calls to sack Cunek over the matter, even though Cunek was stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution in February. The Christian Democrats are key allies for Topolanek, because the three-party government holds just 100 seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament.

The Czech Republic has gone through a string of sleaze scandals since the end of communist rule in 1989.

Accusations of illegal party financing toppled the right-wing government of current President Vaclav Klaus in 1997, and Social Democrat Prime Minister Stanislav Gross resigned due to a personal financial scandal in 2005.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]