Prague - European Union justice ministers were split on Friday over the question of EU rules for divorces between international couples, with 10 states pushing for closer cooperation despite the opposition of the EU executive, the European Commission.

"At this moment, we do have enough countries" to launch a system of international cooperation on divorce issues, Czech Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil, who headed the informal meeting of EU counterparts in Prague, told journalists.

Prague  - If the European Union cannot find a way to make a new database for monitoring the fingerprints and photographs of people entering the bloc work by June, it should scrap the multi- million-euro project, EU interior ministers agreed Thursday.

The project for the second-generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) "is in a critical stage ... It may be that SIS II won't work," Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer, who chaired the informal meeting in Prague, told journalists.

Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel's condition has improved slightly but remained serious, doctors said Thursday, three days after he was admitted to a Prague hospital with throat inflammation.

Doctors said that antibiotics helped to suppress inflammation in Havel's throat after a minor operation on Monday, in which surgeons removed a septic cavity.

The 72-year-old was sleeping well and reading newspapers in hospital, the doctors said. Havel would, however, remain in intensive care as he needed to wear a respiratory mask to aid his breathing, him with breathing, the hospital unit's head Martina Pelechovska.

Prague - The European Union's plan for a new database to monitor the fingerprints and photographs of people entering the bloc has already cost more than double its budget, experts said at a meeting of EU interior ministers on Thursday.

And the project was so far behind schedule that a crisis was looming, the ministers told the press at the informal talks in Prague.

Experts at the meeting estimated that the second-generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), originally expected to cost 23 million euros (30 million dollars), had already cost between 60 and 80 million euros, diplomats told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Prague - Czech-born architect Jan Kaplicky, creator of organic-shaped buildings and a design visionary, died suddenly at the age of 71, medical services confirmed Thursday.

Kaplicky collapsed on a Prague street on Wednesday evening. He died of heart failure despite efforts to resuscitate him just hours after his daughter was born, his relatives said.

"His heart betrayed him at a moment when he wanted to celebrate this joyful event," the family said in a statement provided to the Czech news agency CTK.

Prague - The European Union's plan for a new database to monitor the fingerprints and photographs of people entering the bloc is so far behind schedule that a crisis is looming, EU interior ministers meeting in Prague on Thursday said.

"It's obvious that we cannot fulfil the schedule on the Schengen Information System II (SIS II), we couldn't start the global testing ... It's one of the most important problems, one of the biggest issues and projects in the field of security," Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer, who hosted the meeting, said.