The official count showed the motion gained the 101 votes in the 200-seat lower chamber required to oust the government. [break] The government has survived four previous no-confidence motions. It now has to resign under the Czech constitution.
"I accept the vote and I will act in line with the constitution. Thank you," Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said shortly after the result was announced.
He said he would probably hand in his resignation to the president on Thursday.
In a statement the Czech EU presidency, however, said the fall of the government, would have no immediate impact.
"At the moment this situation has no effect on the role of the President of the European Council," it said.
After Tuesday´s vote, the European Commission voiced its "full trust" that the Czech Republic would continue running the EU presidency effectively.
"It is for the Czech Republic´s democratic process under the constitution to resolve the domestic political issues; the Commission is confident that this is done in a way which ensures the full functioning of the (EU) council presidency," the commission said in a statement.
Topolanek told the Czech news channel CT 24 the outcome of the vote could weaken the Czech position at the European helm but that "our administration is so well-prepared that it can act even without politicians."
The ruling coalition of Topolanek´s right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS), the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Greens has 96 seats in the lower house, while the opposition Social Democrats and Communists have 97 seats and seven deputies sit as independents.
The fragile position of the cabinet, whose term started in early 2007, slowed down the ratification of the EU´s reforming Lisbon Treaty.
The Czech parliament finally passed the text, designed to streamline decision-making in the 27-nation bloc, in mid-February, well after all other EU member states but Ireland had approved it.
Earlier this month, the government withdrew a deal on the stationing of a radar base, part of a US missile-defence shield, on Czech soil from the parliament on concerns it may fail to pass.
The government also saw its popularity reduced by several scandals and corruption allegations, as well as proposed health and welfare reforms which had enraged low-income families.
Tuesday´s no-confidence motion followed charges that an adviser to Topolanek had tried to pressure state television into dropping a programme critical of a former Social Democratic deputy who now backs the coalition.
Social Democrat chief Jiri Paroubek told CT 24 after the vote it was "natural that the government would stay until the end of the EU presidency" on June 30.
He added he would then prefer a caretaker government of experts that would "gain support across the political spectrum" and lead the country until early elections he would like to take place "in autumn or next spring."
This is not the first time that a government holding the EU presidency has fallen. In 1996, Italy´s centre-left coalition under Romano Prodi took over from Lamberto Dini´s centre-right government following a legislative election.
And at the beginning of 1993 Denmark began its six-month EU presidency with the fall of Poul Schlueter´s conservative government, which was replaced by the Social Democrats under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.
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