Prague - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek faced a crucial test in Senate run-off elections starting Friday as his country prepares to chair the European Union early next year.

With his governing party's absolute majority at stake, the voting for 26 of 81 Senate seats could sink or save the centre-right premier, a week after opposition Social Democrats trounced his party in regional elections.

Voters last week rebuked the government for unpopular belt-tightening reforms, such as direct fees for health care, and plans to host a US missile defence radar in the Czech Republic, analysts said.

Those issues were also expected to figure in voting for the Senate, where Topolanek's Civic Democrats held 41 seats heading into the run-offs. The Social Democrats had
14.

Twenty Civic Democratic candidates were on the ballot in this week's elections. All but one faced Social Democratic challengers.

Topolanek, one of eastern Europe's most pro-US leaders, eyed the run-off with hopes that his party would mitigate last week's defeat, when the Social Democrats won elections in all 13 regions in play.

The 52-year-old premier is fighting for political survival before the Czech Republic, a nation of 10 million that is the former Soviet bloc's richest economy, takes over the EU presidency for six months on January 1.

His government won a confidence vote in parliament Wednesday, but he may still pay for the regional defeat at a party congress in December.

Topolanek's opponents within his party, led by Prague mayor Pavel Bem, have said they want to see the Senate run-off score before deciding whether to go on the attack.

Senate approval is required for two key Czech foreign-policy projects, the US missile-defence base and the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the 27-nation bloc's stalled blueprint for reforms in decision-making.

Both appear to have majority support in the current Senate. Dramatic losses by the Civic Democrats could, however, shift the chamber's balance on the missile-defence treaty. (dpa)