Who's pressuring the Czechs???

Clearly, other foreign ministers went ballistic when they heard what the Czechs had to say...

A spokesman for the new Czech EU presidency on Sunday apologised after describing Israel's ground assault in Gaza as "more defensive than offensive."

The apology came after Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg described the original comments as "a very serious mistake" but sought to draw a line under the affair.

Jiri Frantisek Potuznik, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's EU presidency spokesman, issued a statement that was published on the website of the Czech presidency of the EU.

"I would like to apologise for the misunderstanding which occurred on January 3, 2009 about the reaction of the Czech Presidency to the actions of the Israeli ground forces in the Gaza Strip according to which the operations were seen as an act of self-defence," he wrote of his comments the day before.

Libya's Kadhafi Foundation had warned it would press Tripoli to cut ties with Prague unless the Czech official withdrew the remarks and made a formal apology.

The group, headed by Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, the influential son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, said Potuznik's remarks "represent an insult for the (Palestinian) martyrs and wounded."

Seif al-Islam, a reformist who is widely seen as Kadhafi's successor, was in contact with Arab countries to put pressure on Prague to apologise, the statement added.

On Saturday Potuznik had said: "At the moment from our perspective we do understand that the action is part of the defensive action of Israel (...) we do understand that it is more defensive than offensive."