Brussels - The Czech Republic's new prime minister on Tuesday challenged the country's controversial president for the right to head a European Union summit in June.

"My position is that it should be the head of the executive power that should chair the meeting," Jan Fischer, a statistician who was sworn in on Friday as the Czech Republic's new prime minister, said after talks with the head of the EU's executive in Brussels.

EU member states are keen to ensure that Fischer heads the summit, rather than President Vaclav Klaus, one of the most outspoken critics of the EU in Europe.

Fischer said that a final decision on the issue had not yet been taken, but that it would be debated "in the coming days."

The Czech Republic took over the EU's rotating presidency on January 1 and is set to hold it until July 1, with a regular summit scheduled for June 18-19.

One of the main questions the summit must decide is how to persuade Irish voters to back the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which Ireland rejected in a referendum a year ago, at a second vote in the autumn.

But the government of Czech premier Mirek Topolanek was toppled by a no-confidence vote on March 24, leading Klaus to say that he, rather than a caretaker premier, should host the June summit.

That prospect has seriously alarmed EU officials, because Klaus is an outspoken critic of the treaty and the EU itself, a body he has compared to the Soviet Union.

Brussels diplomats say that they are looking at "contingency plans" on what to do if Klaus does host the summit, including the possibility of holding an extra summit in July, once Sweden has taken over the EU's helm. (dpa)