Czech prime minister announced

The Czech president, Vaclav Havel, has named the head of the republic's central bank, Josef Tosovsky, as his new prime minister.

He replaces Vaclav Klaus who stepped down amid a scandal surrounding the funding ofhis Civic Democratic Party -- the main grouping in the three party coalition.

Mr Havel said one reasons for choosing Mr Tosovsky was that he enjoyed the support of the smaller coalition partners, the Christian Democrats and the Civic Democratic Alliance, as well as the opposition Social Democrats.

Correspondents say Mr Tosovsky is expected to be a caretaker prime minister until early elections.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service