Prague- The Czech Republic is negotiating to buy a share in the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL), which pumps Azeri oil from the Italian port of Trieste to Germany, in a bid to lower energy dependence on Russia, a Czech official said Tuesday.

"We are interested in it. It's a long-term project," said Vaclav Bartuska, a Czech ambassador-at-large for energy security.

According to earlier reports, the Czech Republic has been negotiating with pipeline's eight shareholders to buy a 2-per-cent stake. Bartuska declined to elaborate.

Prague- Former Czech president Vaclav Havel Tuesday urged the West to speak up to Russia despite its economic interests.

Speaking at a conference on Asia-Pacific Security Challenges in Prague, Havel said economic interests should not make the West "shy away from speaking about what it does not like about Russia's politics".

Havel has earlier criticized "Russian aggression" in Georgia, backing Tbilisi in a brief war with Moscow last month over breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The Czech Republic's inflation slowed down and unemployment remained steady in August, according to government data released Monday.

The inflation rate year-on-year dropped to 6.5 per cent in August, from 6.9 per cent recorded in July, mainly due to falling food, fuel, alcohol and tobacco prices, the Czech Statistical Office said.

Consumer prices in August fell 0.1 per cent compared to July, the statisticians said.

Prague  - State-owned national carrier Czech Airlines (CSA), which is earmarked for privatization next year, slightly expanded its first-half loss year-on-year amid soaring fuel prices, the company said Thursday.

The airline said it lost 178 million koruny (10.4 million dollars) in the first six months of 2008, compared to 175 million koruny in the same period the previous year.

The revenues grew 3.5 per cent to 11.17 billion koruny January- June, compared to the first half last year, the firm said.

Prague- Thieves have stolen a 13-metre iron footbridge in eastern Czech Republic with the probable intention of selling it for scrap, local police said on Monday.

"They cut it up with an oxy-fuel torch and took it away," said police spokeswoman Alena Nedelnikova.

Theft of metal for scrap, driven by soaring global scrap-metal prices, has plagued the Czech Republic for years but in recent months thieves appear bolder than ever.

In April, scrap-metal sellers snatched more than 800 bronze name- tablets from the Theresienstadt Holocaust memorial cemetery.

Vienna - It was vital for the future of the European Union to agree on a strong position on Russia's actions in Georgia, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Monday in Vienna, ahead of an EU emergency summit in Brussels this afternoon.

"Should the European Union not be able to find a clear, strong, common position," Schwarzenberg said, "we can write off the European Union as a political project for some time to come."

The foreign minister, who was in Vienna to meet his Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik, reiterated his position that EU sanctions against Russia would not be effective.