Prague - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who is scheduled to be the next European Union president, has condemned the EU's steps to fight the global financial crisis as too interventionist.

"All these measures are absolutely artificial. They contradict the EU's substance," the CTK news agency quoted Topolanek as saying late Wednesday during a visit to Turkey.

"And I have to say it is a huge disappointment. What happened in recent days has damaged confidence in the EU more than anything else," CTK cited him as saying.

Prague  - Czech energy firm CEZ said Wednesday it agreed to buy a 37.4-per-cent stake in Turkish power producer Akenerji Elektrik Uretim A S from its majority owner, the Akkok Group.

The state-controlled CEZ is to pay 302.6 million dollars to Akkok, its strategic partner in Turkey which holds some 75 per cent in Akenerji.

Prague- The Czech Republic's inflation rose slightly while unemployment remained steady in September, according to government data released Wednesday.

The inflation rate year-on-year rose a notch to 6.6 per cent in September, from 6.5 per cent recorded in August, mainly due to higher costs for education, vacations and tobacco products, the Czech Statistical Office said.

Prague - Czech author and former president Vaclav Havel was Tuesday awarded Germany's Point Alpha Prize for the Unity of Germany and Europe in Peace and Freedom.

Havel was honoured as a "representative of the great European revolution for liberty in the Soviet realm," said the former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher in the German embassy in Prague.

"He gave an example of courage, conviction, and self-sacrifice," said Genscher before 100 guests from the world's politics and society.

Prague  - The Czech military intelligence said Monday that foreign spies have shown "specific interest in information" about a missile defence radar base the United States plans to build in the ex-Soviet satellite.

The agency did not give any details in a public version of its 2007 annual report released Monday.

On Thursday, Czech civil counter-intelligence BIS said in its annual report that Russian spies have been stirring up public opinion against the US base. But the report did not give specifics.

The reports were released three weeks before regional and Senate elections.

Prague - Czech power company CEZ said Monday it has made a bid for a 76-per-cent stake in the Albanian power distributor OSSH.