The legislative debates, which will also touch on alleged police brutality during the CzechTek rave party, will set the scene for full-scale campaigns by political parties in the run-up to the June 2006 parliamentary elections.

Thus, an outline of some of the hot-button issues that will come before lawmakers for a vote, as well as high-profile bills that await signature by President Václav Klaus — these made it through a special mid-August session of Parliament, when deputies were summoned from their summer recess to deal with a backlog of business.

A long-awaited anti-corruption measure that aims to bring transparency to public life made it through its parliamentary first reading Aug. 17 and now faces further scrutiny by deputies' committees. Czech bills typically get three readings in the lower house. If passed, they must be approved by the Senate and the president to become law.

This conflict-of-interest bill, which the government wants to come into force from January, would oblige deputies, senior public officials and municipal assembly members who hold paid posts to reveal new property and assets they acquire, or face fines if they fail to do so. The bill has prompted arguments, and some deputies look set to try to change parts of it, particularly a requirement for judges to declare their interests.

Jirí Pospísil, shadow justice minister for the Civic Democrats (ODS), the main right-of-center opposition party, has warned that if judges are forced to reveal their assets, defense lawyers would use the information to challenge justices, who would then become more cautious in making decisions.

In the wake of the CzechTek clashes between police and young partygoers — the biggest political controversy of the summer, which resulted from a violent police raid on a music festival in west Bohemia in July — Prime Minister Jirí Paroubek said Aug. 21 he is in favor of a new law to allow mayors to decide whether they want such gatherings held in their municipalities.

However, anxious not to appear authoritarian, Paroubek has also said that the government plans to start a dialogue with music festival organizers to avoid problems next year.

Dozens of music fans and police officers suffered injuries when hundreds of riot police drove an estimated 5,000 ravers off rented land in Mly´nec during the annual CzechTek party. The police action sparked accusations that the state was behaving with communist-era brutality.

A new so-called anti-smoking law — criticized by its opponents as being so weak that it will encourage rather than discourage people from smoking in some public places — was passed Aug. 19 by deputies, who overturned a veto on the measure by the Senate.

The bill could come into force early next year but must first be signed by President Klaus.

Smoking is currently forbidden in restaurants while main meals are being served, even though the rule is widely flouted.

Critics say the new law would allow customers to light up at all times as long as they are sitting in designated smoking areas. Health Minister Milada Emmerová has admitted the measure is a compromise that cannot please everyone.

Under another measure planned by the Cabinet, new passports bearing encoded digital photographs could appear by summer 2006 and digitally encoded fingerprints by mid-2008.

The introduction of documents containing so-called biometric data is among measures demanded by the United States before it decides whether to abolish visa requirements for Czechs.

The changes to passports are part of a bill that deputies sent on to a second reading Aug. 18, during which it will be discussed by parliamentary committees.

One government bill that has sparked controversy aims to increase social benefits for unemployed people who are actively seeking jobs but to cut state payouts for those who are judged to be avoiding work.

Critics of the measure, including some in the Roma, or Gypsy, community, say the government wants to make life difficult for people with large families who are suspected of reaping benefits awarded to their children rather than looking for work. They add that cutting state payouts that support youngsters is unfair.

Ivan Vesely´, chairman of Dzeno, a leading Roma advocacy group, said that the bill — which made it through to the second-reading stage in Parliament Aug. 18 and now faces further debate — "really discriminates against families with more children."

One highly contentious piece of legislation that the Interior Ministry wants to push through before parliamentary elections next summer would legalize, regulate and tax prostitution. The proposed law faces widespread opposition, not least by the Christian Democrats, who are part of the governing coalition. Critics of the bill, which is expected to receive its first reading in Parliament at the end of September, say that if enacted, it would in effect mean the government becoming "a pimp."

Backers say that the law will help cut the risk of sexually transmitted diseases because prostitutes would have to undergo regular medical checks and that it will limit the number of illegal sex workers arriving from the east because any non-European Union citizen would have to produce a visa or a residence permit to gain a license for offering sexual services.

Another measure opposed by the Christian Democrats is a law permitting registered partnerships for same-sex couples. The proposal is due for debate during the next session of Parliament, beginning Sept. 19.

Last year deputies failed to pass a similar a bill by just one vote. Gay and lesbian campaigners fear time is running out for the law, arguing that if the right-of-center Civic Democrats emerge as the strongest party in next June's elections, the chances of legalizing registered gay partnerships could vanish for another four years.