Zgarba denies conflict of interests.

(From Czech News Agency)

BRUSSELS, June 1 (CTK) - Agriculture Minister Petr Zgarba (Social Democrats, CSSD) rejects the criticism that he has not yet published his property situation and that in the past he was in a conflict of interests as both a legislator who owned agricultural land, Zgarba told CTK on Tuesday.

"I have published my property statements. Since they are accessible in the Senate and everywhere I was to submit them, I have no problem with it," Zgarba told CTK in Brussels, where he had talks with the European commissioner for agriculture.

Zgarba said that he had mentioned his property at the press conference held when he took up his post.

He was reacting to an article in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) on Tuesday saying that Zgarba had not fulfilled his promise to inform about his property situation.

MfD wrote that Zgarba was among the richest new members of Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's government since along with a house and an Audi A4 car he owns almost 50 hectares of agricultural land. He bought most of it from the Land Fund in Havlickuv Brod, South Moravia, where his wife works, in the past four years.

"My wife has been working with the Land Fund for some time, but the purchase of the land did not concern her in the least. The land was put up for auction. My wife has never been involved in such affairs, not even as an employee of the fund, since she works in a different ...