Prague  - Czech voters are to head to the polls, triggered by a recent government collapse, on October 9 and 10, the presidential office said Wednesday.

The three-party centre-right government of former premier Mirek Topolanek was ousted in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence on March 24, an embarrassment for the country during its half-year presidency of the European Union that ended Tuesday.

The main rival parties, Topolanek's center-right Civic Democrats and the leftist Social Democrats of another ex-premier Jiri Paroubek, then agreed to rush the country to early elections in mid-October.

Until the polls, the Czech Republic is in the hands of a caretaker government led by Prime Minister Jan Fischer, a statistician without political ambition whose cabinet took over on May 8.(dpa)