PRAGUE (AFP) -- Czech President Vaclav Klaus declared himself in favor of early elections to solve the country's four-and-a-half-month political crisis.

"We are in search of an agreement between political parties, and this agreement should be... that early elections represent the only outcome to today's situation," Klaus said during a news conference.

Klaus is conducting meetings with the leaders of all five political parties represented in parliament to map out a solution to the country's political crisis following inconclusive legislative elections at the start of June.

A new chapter in the crisis opened on October 11 when the short-lived right-wing government of Civic Democrat Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek tendered its resignation after failing to win a vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament.

Klaus met with Topolanek Monday after sounding out a delegation from the Christian Democrats on Friday.

Both parties "envisage a legitimate agreement between parties and not the purchase of a vote for this or that side," Klaus added, referring to the division of the Czech parliament between centre-right and left wing factions which could make support from any "defectors" crucial.

Topolanek said early elections are now his party's target.

"We prefer, after having examined all the variants and their risks for the Czech economy and for the Czech Republic, the variant of the earliest possible elections, elections next year," he said. "We are ready to search for support in the lower house of parliament for such an agreement."

Klaus, the founder of the free-market Civic Democrat Party and a past premier, has said he will not take any decisive steps until after local and Senate elections due to take place on the last two weekends of the month.

Former Social Democrat prime minister Jiri Paroubek said Monday that a grand coalition between his party and Topolanek's was one of four possible scenarios for a future government.

He listed the other three as a government of experts, a Social Democrat government on its own and a Social Democrat coalition government supported by the lower house's two smallest parties, the Green Party and Christian Democrats.

Paroubek, due to meet with Klaus on Wednesday, has said that the possibilities for negotiations between parties to form a government are not exhausted and has opposed the idea of early elections.