11.   Indeed, that view is echoed in Prague, where Czech officials are desperately looking for investors to rescue their nearly bankrupt steel producers.

12.   International organizations have urged Czech officials to change the law, but so far they have made no move to do so.

13.   Likewise, the Associated Press quoted a US official as saying that Czech officials have told Washington that the meeting did not take place.

14.   Reports of the meeting have persisted, based primarily on accounts of Czech officials like Prime Minister Milos Zeman, who discussed it with officials in Washington in November.

15.   The difference now is leverage, Czech officials and oil analysts said.

16.   The national budget surplus would be used to supplement the defense budget, Czech officials said.

17.   There were widespread expectations among Czech officials that the size of the investment and the number of employees could eventually triple.

18.   They are also collaborating with Czech officials about a series of secret meetings that Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader, had with Iraqi intelligence agents.

19.   Zeman, who is on an official visit to the United States this week, said that Czech officials were looking for a safer venue for Radio Free Europe.

20.   A Czech parliamentary official Tuesday defended Czech-made subsonic combat jets the defense minister earlier described as unreliable and dangerous.