Brussels  - The European Commission said Tuesday it had "full trust" in the Czech Republic's ability to continue representing the European Union presidency, despite its government losing a confidence vote in parliament.

"The Commission has full trust that the national constitutional law allows for the Czech Republic to continue conducting the Council Presidency as effectively as it has done until now," officials in Brussels said in a statement.

Prague - The Czech government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek collapsed Tuesday after it lost a vote of no-confidence in parliament midway through the country's presidency of the European Union.

The leftist opposition was helped by four renegade lawmakers elected to Topolanek's ruling coalition in toppling the cabinet by the slimmest of majorities, 101 votes.

Topolanek collected 96 votes in the 200-seat lower house after failing to win over the renegades in last-minute talks.

Prague 

Prague  - Czech lawmakers convened Tuesday to submit Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's government to a confidence test, the outcome of which could undermine country's presidency of the European Union and efforts to ratify the bloc's reform Lisbon Treaty.

If the government falls, it would also complicate the Czech Republic's efforts to battle the economic slump and deal a major blow to Czech-US missile defence treaties, Topolanek's key foreign policy project.

Prague - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Tuesday that Ukraine would oppose replacing Kiev's efforts to join the European Union with EU's Eastern Partnership plan to bring closer six ex-Soviet states, including Ukraine.

"We do not want this partnership to be an alternative, a substitute for our entrance to the European Union," he said through an interpreter after meeting his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus.

Prague  - The Czech government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek faced a vote of no-confidence on Tuesday, a test that threatens to undermine his country's presidency of the European Union.

Topolanek's fall at home would provide ammunition to his critics abroad, analysts said.

"(French President) Nicolas Sarkozy would be one of the first to make himself heard," said political scientist Petr Just, a lecturer at Metropolitan University in Prague.