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New Czech Government Due Friday : E. Europe: Opposition group has given premier a list of possible Cabinet members.

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From Reuters

Czechoslovakia’s opposition leader Vaclav Havel said today that Premier Ladislav Adamec will announce a new government Friday after approval by the country’s pro-democracy movement.

Havel spoke at a news conference after emergency talks with Adamec and Communist Party leader Karel Urbanek aimed at resolving a 3-week-old political crisis.

He said Adamec will show his list of ministers to the Civic Forum opposition movement before making it public.

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The new government will replace one formed only last Sunday and rejected by the opposition because 16 of its 21 members were Communists.

The Communist leadership agreed to change the government after the Civic Forum threatened a general strike next Monday.

Havel did not say whether Civic Forum wants to nominate ministers of its own rather than independent experts.

But political sources said the opposition, which had earlier excluded Civic Forum ministers, has switched its tack. They said workers’ representative Petr Miller and Slovak Catholic activist Jan Czarnogursky are among those the Civic Forum wants Adamec to include.

Czechoslovak state radio said Havel and an opposition delegation handed Adamec a list of names this morning and have been asked to provide more.

The earlier Cabinet formed by Adamec was regarded as unrepresentative of the balance of political forces after the Communist Party’s surrender of its political monopoly last week.

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Today’s talks were the first time Urbanek has met directly with the opposition since he replaced hard-liner Milos Jakes as party leader Nov. 24.

Havel said Urbanek spoke of his difficulties in persuading lower-level party officials that their 40 years of full political dominance were over.

Urbanek said of a meeting he held with district party secretaries: “For three hours, I explained to them that the Communist Party does not want to carry out power politics any longer. Some of them didn’t want to understand.”

The Civic Forum has shown during a campaign of demonstrations and a previous general strike that it can mobilize the support of millions of people.

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