Czech press survey.

(From Czech News Agency)

PRAGUE, Aug 1 (CTK) - In today's Lidove noviny (LN), Frantisek Sulc discusses information that U.S. President George W. Bush is not interested in meeting Czech President Vaclav Klaus that has recently surfaced in the media.

Sulc says that this is not a divide in Czech-U.S. relations, but a personal row between Klaus and American politicians.

The warm welcome Premier Vladimir Spidla received during his trip to the U.S. recently and the honours that were heaped upon former president Vaclav Havel when he visited last week were a message to Klaus from the United States, Sulc says.

"The reason for the row is not because the Czech President rejected the war in Iraq, but his insinuation that in the worst case scenario the Americans will alter evidence of weapons of mass destruction and his attempt to wriggle out of alliance," Sulc says.

"The same as the problem is not that Vaclav Klaus does not want American bases in the Czech Republic, but his undiplomatic statement in this matter recalling historical experiences. In other words [Klaus's] comparing Americans to Soviet troops," Sulc says.

Sulc says that the favouritism show to Spidla is not ideological, but pragmatic.