Prague  - Israeli President Shimon Peres after a meeting with Czech President Vaclav Klaus in Prague on Monday said he was hopeful for a successful conclusion to peace talks with the Palestinians this year.

Peres added that he expected "definite advances" in Israel's relations with its Arab neighbours.

Klaus stressed that politics was not about ideology but compromise.

Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic  - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller on Saturday had to abandon a meeting in the Czech Republic with fellow European Union ministers after suffering from exhaustion and being rushed to hospital.

"He was not feeling well in the morning," Zuzana Opletalova, a spokeswoman for the Czech Foreign Ministry, told German Press Agency dpa.

Subsequent check-ups at the Ceske Budejovice County Hospital showed that the 66-year-old minister had "nothing serious," Opletalova said.

Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic  - Turkey and seven Western Balkan nations knocked on the European Union's door Saturday asking to be let, but found it bolted by France and Germany.

"There will be no enlargement if there is no Lisbon Treaty," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech Republic.

That position was echoed by German foreign ministry officials, who said: "We will not be in a position to accept new member states in the EU without the Lisbon Treaty."

Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic - Neither Croatia, nor any other applicant country, will be able to join the European Union unless the bloc's reforming Lisbon Treaty is ratified, officials from France and Germany said Saturday.

"There will be no enlargement if there is no Lisbon Treaty," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech Republic.

Prague - Three spectators were killed Saturday when a vehicle crashed into the audience at a car race in north-eastern Czech Republic, the race organizers said.

The Slovak race driver slid in a curve near the town of Stramberk, which sent him off the race track and into the spectators, local reports said.

The victims included a 38-year-old father and his 13-year-old son, the CTK news agency reported citing a police spokeswoman.

The driver was rushed to a hospital with a slight injury, a race spokesman said in a statement.

Prague - The leaders of the Czech Republic's two major rival political parties, outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and Social Democratic head Jiri Paroubek, agreed to hold early elections, government officials said Saturday.

"They met and agreed on early elections," Topolanek's spokeswoman, Jana Bartosova, told the German Press Agency dpa.

However, the spokeswoman would not comment on Czech media reports suggesting a general election could take place in October.