Havel rules out possibility of seeking presidency again.

(From Czech News Agency)

(adds statements by Paroubek, Topolanek in paras 10-14)

PRAGUE, Jan 1 (CTK) - Former president Vaclav Havel said today he is not going to run again for Czech presidency though he said he agrees with lawyers that this would theoretically be possible after a five-year pause.

"It is possible under the constitution, this is beyond doubt. But I myself do not want it," Havel said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec's discussion programme on the Czech Television (CT) public broadcaster.

Havel, 69, was Czechoslovak president from December 1989 to July 1992 and then twice Czech president in 1993-2003. Under the constitution a person can only be president twice in a row, but can run again after a pause.

Havel was succeeded by Vaclav Klaus in March 2003. Klaus says he is set to run again when his presidency expires in early 2008.

Havel said on CT today that the generation of people who were preparing a change of the totalitarian regime in late 1989 and who have participated in politics over the past 16 years since then, should vacate the political scene for the benefit of younger people who were already growing up in a free country already.