Talks on possible extension of Gripen fighters´ lease open

The two ministers talked on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defence ministers and other participants in the Afghan mission in Brussels.

Under the contract from 2004, the Czech military will be using the Gripens till 2015. The lease of the fighters cost 19.6 billion crowns.

Vondra said after his talks with Tolgfors that the price of the possible extended use would be of primary importance. "The economic criterion, in other words savings, is absolutely crucial for us," he said.

Vondra said the Czech-Swedish negotiations should not last longer than four months.

The Czech government decided on Wednesday that the country will keep supersonic aircraft even after 2015 and it assigned Vondra to discuss a bridging solution to enable a further use of the Gripens.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said "the bridging period" should not last more than five years.

"In the current economic situation, also with regard to public budgets, the government does dot consider it right to declare a tender that should definitively solve the problems of airspace protection," Necas said on Wednesday.

($1=19.202 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz