A ceremony later today to mark the eightieth anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia has been overshadowed by a spy scandal involving an Austrian former mayor.

The Czech president, Vaclav Havel, was due to give a top state honour to the former Mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk; but the award has been withheld because of accusations that Mr Zilk worked for the secret police of communist Czechoslovakia in the nineteen-sixties.

Mr Havel has asked the Czech Interior Ministry to investigate the charge.

Mr Zilk insists he is innocent.

Mr Zilk was mayor of Vienna from 1984 to 1994, when he lost his left hand in a letter bomb attack.