AFP -Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, defeated this week in a no-confidence motion, formally resigned Thursday and President Vaclav Klaus said he hoped an early solution to the crisis could be found.
   
The resignation of Topolanek, leader of the conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS), became inevitable when 101 members of the 200-member lower house of parliament voted against him Tuesday eveing.
   
"The solution must be rapid, that means visible, in a short time," Klaus said in a brief meeting with reporters with Topolanek.
   
"The complicated economic situation and the (Czech Republic's six month) presidency of the European Union demand it," Klaus said.
   
"I will not allow a non-solution of the problem, for example a temporary state of affairs until the end of our EU presidency (on June 30), until an early election or even normal elections."
   
"I am in favour of a government which can rely on a political understanding in the lower house," with a genuine majority of 101 votes, he said.
   
Klaus is due to hold talks Friday with the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), who were part of Topolanek's coalition.
   
In the interim the outgoing government is to act as a caretaker administration until a new cabinet is appointed, he said.
   
The fall of the Topolanek government could scarcely have been worst timed, coming at the midpoint of the Czech Republic's EU presidency, when there are doubts about the ratification of the EU Lisbon treaty and a major global economic crisis is in progress.
   
It is now up to Klaus to appoint a new prime minister. The president, an avowed eurosceptic, found Topolanek, his successor as head of the ODS, too pro-European, but in spite of the frigid relations between the two men Topolanek has let it be known he is ready to try to form a new government.
   
Failing that he would head a caretaker government until an early election, which he favours.
   
"In identical cases Vaclav Klaus has hitherto charged the head of the party that emerged victorious fromn the election," with forming a government, he said. In 2006 he took six months to stitch together the coalition that fell apart on Tuesday.
   
Local analysts see a number of options. One would be to preserve the status quo until the end of the EU presidency. Others suggest a caretaker government or a government of national unity: still others early elections in the summer or autumn.
   
Topolanek, who blames Klaus for his defeat in the lower house, wants an early election.
   
"It would be absurd to prolong this state of affairs. The economic situation is serious and will get more so," he said.
   
"In the meantime, we are going to do everything we can to maintain stability, both at home and abroad."
   
Although Topolanek has said his resignation should not impact on the EU, utgoing Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra warned Wednesday the crisis "complicates" the process of ratifying the EU's reforming Lisbon treaty.
   
The Czech Republic is the only country where the treaty has not been approved by parliament, though it is also still to be formally ratified in both Germany and Poland and faces a referendum in Ireland.
   
CSSD leader Jiri Paroubek has suggested the spring of 2010 for the election. In any event elections are due to be held in June 2010.
   
Klaus is reported to back an interim government of technocrats or a ODS-CSSD coalition similar to that of 1998 in a deal that gave Klaus the post of speaker of the lower house.
   
The appointment of a goverment of technocrats in the middle of the EU presidency, according to political scientist Jiri Pehe, would give the eurosceptic Klaus a bigger role in determining foreign policy.