Czech president cancels meeting with PM Topolanek

PRAGUE, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus cancelled a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek due to a lack of progress in talks on forming a new government, a presidential spokesman said.

Topolanek's efforts to form a new cabinet hit a fresh obstacle on Sunday when the leftist Social Democrats said they would not take part in a broad four-party coalition Topolanek was trying to form.

"After a telephone conversation this morning with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek which showed that negotiations on forming a new cabinet have not progressed so far, the president cancelled the meeting planned for noon (1100 GMT) today," the spokesman said in a statement.

He gave no new date for the meeting.

The central European country's political scene has been in turmoil since an election in June gave right and left-wing camps 100 seats each in the lower house of parliament.

A minority cabinet of Topolanek's Civic Democrats has lost a confidence vote, but it remains in power while Topolanek explores other possibilities.

An early election can be called if three consecutive attempts to form a cabinet fail.

The Civic Democrats have proposed the four party-coalition which would lead the country into an early election at some point. But the Social Democrats, weaker in opinion polls, have been arguing for a cabinet of just three parties and with a longer mandate. ((Reporting by Jan Lopatka, prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: jan.lopatka.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420-224 190 474))

Keywords: CZECH POLITICS/