Czech president moves to unblock parliament

PRAGUE, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus proposed on Friday an "interim solution" to unblock the lower house of parliament and create a government five months after an inconclusive general election.

He refused to give any details of his proposal, except to say that it would reflect agreement with one party's suggestion to allow the election of a house speaker for a limited term to get parliament to begin sitting after the June vote.

In a move to breathe life into the stalemate, Klaus said he had given leaders of the five parties in parliament until Tuesday to consider his offer.

"In a similar way, we are looking for a solution which probably has to lead to something that has this kind of precise time limit," he told journalists.

The June 2-3 election ended in deadlock with centre-right and leftist parties both winning 100 seats in the lower house.

Since then, the two sides have bickered over how to break the impasse, with rightists pushing for early elections as soon as possible and the left looking for a grand coalition with an early vote in the autumn of 2008 at the earliest.

Klaus nominated rightist leader Mirek Topolanek as prime minister last month but his minority government subsequently lost a vote of confidence in parliament.

Under the constitution, Klaus also names the second candidate to form a government.

"We will meet again on Tuesday and will say whether or not it is possible to continue going this way (to follow his proposal)," he said.

Miloslav Vlcek was elected by the house as speaker, but only on condition he would step down after two successive governments failed to win a confidence vote.

If two governments fail, the third is chosen by the speaker, and neither leftist nor centre right parties were willing to let the other side have the post after the second failure. ((Reporting by Alan Crosby; editing by Elizabeth Piper; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: alan.crosby.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420 224 190 477))

Keywords: CZECH POLITICS