Slovakian president: 'Government not working'

The Slovakian President, Rudolf Schuster, has criticised the government in a state of the nation address.

Mr Schuster told parliament that ministers had failed to address the country's economic problems, and - as he put it - wasted time trying to bring legal charges against representatives of the previous, nationalist government.

He said there was still time for the government to turn the economy around, but said he saw no cause for optimism.

A BBC correspondent in the region says the speech came at the end of a bad week for the ten-party coalition wracked by in-fighting. The government had almost collapsed because of a no-confidence vote in the parliament.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service