( AFP ) - The Czech defense ministry is prepared to buy 107 armored personnel carriers from Austrian firm Steyr Daimler Puch instead of the original 199, the Czech business magazine Euro reported on its Web site Feb. 29.
The ministry and the company, which is a unit of U.S. defense giant General Dynamics, will sign a memorandum of understanding next week, including a new timetable for tests and deliveries of the carriers, it added.
The ministry declined to comment on the report, saying that it would release information on negotiations once they have been completed. "We do not comment on ongoing negotiations, only when there is a result," spokesman Andrej Cirtek told the CTK news agency.
The government decided at the end of January to give Steyr a second chance to renegotiate the original contract of $1.18 billion for 199 vehicles after canceling it in December.
If new talks did not bring results by March 5, a new tender to supply the carriers would be launched, it said.
The contract for 199 Pandur II light-armored vehicles was originally signed in June 2006. According to the Austrian press, failure to secure the Czech contract would close the Steyr Daimler Puch plant with the loss of about 500 jobs.