Mira Trebická, a press officer for the Defense Ministry, said the government is negotiating an agreement with CSA to provide planes for dignitaries to travel abroad until it can boost its own fleet.

The deal comes amid concerns that the government's current fleet of six aircraft is too old and potentially unsafe. The talks follow several high-profile mishaps during international flights this year that forced planes to make emergency landings while carrying high-level government officials.

"It is the only solution that is fair," said Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda, who speaks from experience.

The government's two TU-154s and its Challenger jet have both had their share of problems during the past year, and Svoboda has intimate knowledge of these difficulties. For example, in November a crack in the front window of a TU-154 delayed Svoboda's trip to Qatar, and then in April the front window of the Challenger, which was carrying Svoboda and President Václav Klaus to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, cracked while the plane was over the Austrian mountains. The plane made an emergency landing in Munich.

In July Svoboda again found himself preparing for an emergency landing — this time in west Africa. The TU-154 in which he was flying suddenly developed a malfunction in one of its three hydraulic systems. The plane landed in Mauritania and his trip to South America was delayed 30 hours.

Of the government's six official transports, five are Soviet-made and date to the 1960s — two Tupolev TU-154s, two Jakovlev Jak-40s and one Antonov An-26B. The government's newest plane, a CL-601 Challenger, which a Canadian company manufactures, is 14 years old.

During a recent interview, Trebická said that the government planes are just outdated in terms of technology rather than patently unsafe. "The planes fail to meet the valid and future norms and criteria for aviation technologies," said Trebická, pointing out that the planes do not meet accepted noise-level standards or pollution limits and can only fly under "granted exceptions, which will only be tolerated [by the EU] for a certain period of time."

The only plane that fulfills current aviation criteria, Trebická said, is the Challenger.

"It is expected that until a modernization of the planes, constitutional officials would use CSA planes for their overseas flights," Trebická said. "At the moment we are discussing conditions of the contract."

The talks have been ongoing for two weeks, and the exact details of the deal — whether it would be a temporary arrangement or a permanent relationship between the government and the airline — are unclear. A key consideration on any agreement is the government's travel schedule, which according to CSA officials has yet to be provided. Airline officials said it could make available a range of planes — a small charter plane, an Airbus A-320 for trips of medium distances, an Airbus A-310 for long hauls — and the government would pay for their use like any other private party.

"They will be like our customers," Jitka Novotná, a CSA spokeswoman, said. "We can offer them any plane they wish."

The government plans to continue to use the Challenger, though not necessarily to transport dignitaries out of the country. Svoboda said the government plans to gradually retire the rest of the fleet as new planes arrive. In April the Defense Ministry ordered two small planes, two medium-sized planes and two helicopters at total cost of 4.1 billion Kc ($57.6 million).

This summer the ministry signaled it would make the purchase of the medium-sized planes the priority. One plane is expected to arrive next year, the second in 2007.

Trebická said the midsize planes would either be the Airbus 319 or the Boeing 737 and would be decided through a public tender.