Berlin  - Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg is to visit Berlin on Monday as Prague prepares for a six-month term in the presidency of the European Union, diplomats said Friday.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to present him with one of Germany's highest honours, the Grand Cross of the Order of Germany, when they meet, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said.

Schwarzenberg, who lived in Austria and Germany before the end of communism in his homeland, is to address a select group of German legislators in a meeting room at the parliament building in Berlin during the stay.

Prague - The Czech budget gap in 2009 could reach 50 to 60 billion koruny (2.5 to 3 billion dollars), the CTK news agency reported Thursday citing Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek.

Parliament's lower house Wednesday approved a 2009 budget with a deficit of 38.1 billion koruny (1.9 billion dollars), which relies on a growth of the country's gross domestic product by 4.8 per cent.

Prague  - The Czech parliament's upper house on Wednesday adjourned a session on the European Union's reform treaty for at least one month, joining the lower house in a bid to postpone a vote on the pact.

The 81-seat Senate voted 73-0 to return the treaty to committee negotiations. Four senators abstained.

On Tuesday, the lower house put off a session on the so-called Lisbon Treaty to February 3.

As a result the Czech Republic will not ratify the charter before the country's six-month rotating EU presidency starts January 1.

Prague  - The Czech parliament's lower house Wednesday approved a 2009 budget with a deficit of 1.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), well below the
3-per-cent limit required for adopting the euro.

However, the Czech Republic is in no rush to switch to Europe's common currency, as Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek wants to fix country's public finances first.

Prague - The Czech Republic wants the European Union to craft a "win-win" climate-package deal that would not detriment the EU's Eastern European members, an official said Wednesday.

"For us phasing-in in the power generation sector is a kind of a red line. It must be part of the solution," said Vice-Premier for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra, referring to an EU proposal to require companies to buy greenhouse gas emissions permits at auctions.

Prague- The Czech Republic's economy expanded slower in the third quarter of 2008 than estimated in November, government data showed Wednesday.

The Czech Statistical Office revised down its third-quarter annual gross domestic product (GDP) estimate of 4.7 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

The economy grew 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter compared to the estimate of 1 per cent, the statisticians said. They also revised down the country's annual growth in
2007 to 5.9 per cent, from earlier 6.5 per cent.