Czech President Vaclav Klaus will not chair a high-profile meeting of EU leaders in June, his office has announced.

Mr Klaus "proposed that Prime Minister Jan Fischer should chair June's EU summit in Brussels on behalf of the Czech presidency," his office said in a statement.

"The president has full trust in the prime minister and has no doubt that he will handle this role easily and with success."

Vaclav Klaus - criticised in some parts of the EU, winning awards in others

The move is likely to be greeted with relief by EU diplomats who feared the president would use the gathering to air his strong opposition to the EU's Lisbon treaty, compounding what many view as a damaging past few months for the bloc under the gaffe-prone Czech presidency.