Vienna  - Hungarian oil and gas group MOL Plc. plans to operate 100 petrol stations in Austria this year, the company's CEO Zsolt Hernadi said in Vienna on Monday.

MOL was aiming at a market share between five and 10 per cent of Austria's petrol retail market, Hernadi told Austrian public broadcaster ORF.

The Hungarian company has told its Austrian rival OMV AG it wanted to buy 100 of its stations, but had not received and answer yet, Austrian news agency APA reported.

Budapest - A venerable Hungarian porcelain factory said Wednesday it has landed an order to make china tableware for Swedish home furnishing retailer Ikea.

Zsolnay Porcelanmanufaktura expects to sign a seven-year deal shortly to supply 5,000 tons of china a year for Ikea starting in September 2009, the MTI news agency reported.

While Zsolnay would be one of about 1,300 Ikea suppliers, the contract would be a lifeline for the loss-making 156-year-old company.

Budapest - Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany called Sunday for parliament to dissolve itself so that new elections can be held to end a government crisis.

Gyurcsany called for a vote on Monday, but it was unclear if Parliament Speaker Katalin Szili, like the premier a member of the Socialist Party (MSZP), would put it on the legislature's agenda.

The prime minister said it was important for him to know how the party viewed the crisis triggered by the pull-out of the Liberal Party (SZDSZ) from his ruling coalition in April.

Gyurcsany's government has been without an overall majority since the withdrawal of the SZDSZ.

The next regular elections in Hungary are not due until 2010.

Budapest  - Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced Monday that his Socialist Party (MSZP) will hold an extraordinary party congress on September
27 to try to tackle the government crisis, the Hungarian MTI news agency reported Monday.

The congress will decide whether Gyurcsany will remain as prime minister in a minority government, following the failure of efforts to build a new coalition with the Liberal Party (SZDSZ).

Last week the SZDSZ thwarted Gyurcsany's efforts to reconstitute the governing coalition by rejecting government reform proposals.

Budapest - Road accidents involving alcohol are down by one- fifth in Hungary since tougher drunk-driving penalties took effect in January, the government statistics agency said Thursday.

Budapest - McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen claimed his first Formula One Grand Prix win Sunday after Ferrari's Felipe Massa was forced to retire as he appeared to be coasting to victory.