New Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross said Monday that he wanted his country to hold a referendum in June 2006 on the future EU constitution.

Gross said he wanted to see the referendum paired with legislative elections in the Czech Republic, in an address to an annual conference of Czech ambassadors.

But he added that he and his centre-left coalition had not yet agreed on a date for the referendum.

Ratifying a European constitution would not be easy in the Czech Republic but Gross said he expected Czechs to accept the text adopted by the leaders of the 25 EU states in June.

The Czech right-wing ODS opposition party and the communists who did well in European elections in June are opposed to the European draft constitution, as is Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a former head of the ODS.

The Czech constitution does not include a provision for a referendum and parliament would have to adopt a special law to authorize such a vote.

Gross's centre-left government was approved by parliament earlier this month. At 34, Gross is the youngest prime minister in the European Union and in the history of the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia, of which it was a constituent part until the end of 1992.