Czechs rallied in Prague against Mr Pribyl's appointment

The new government office head, Pavel Pribyl, commanded riot police who broke up student protests with water cannon and truncheons in Prague in 1989.

Mr Pribyl admitted to the Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes that he had commanded a police unit during the protests.

Prime Minister Stanislav Gross refused to sack Mr Pribyl on Tuesday.

Czech artists and writers, who are petitioning for Mr Pribyl's dismissal, were among some 300 protesters outside the government building in Prague on Tuesday.

The prime minister's spokeswoman, Vera Duskova, told the CTK news agency that Mr Gross would ask Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan to open up the records to determine Mr Pribyl's activities as a member of the police rapid reaction unit in 1989.

Protesters brought images of the 1989 anti-communist protests

Referring to his role in January 1989 - year of the Velvet Revolution - Mr Pribyl said: "I see today that this was not right".

He told Mlada Fronta Dnes that he commanded a company during the anti-communist demonstrations in 1989, but that he "stood 15 metres behind" his men so he could watch over them.

"I was told where we were to go and what we were supposed to seal off, what street," he said.

I would like to call on both Mr Pribyl and Prime Minister Gross to be man enough to come here and defend their decisions Bretislav Rychlik

But he said he would only resign if Prime Minister Gross or the government demanded his resignation.

Mr Gross took up his post last month.

Pressure on new PM

According to Czech TV, film director Bretislav Rychlik, actress Eva Holubova and songwriter Jan Burian met Mr Gross to argue for Mr Pribyl's sacking.

"I would like to call on both Mr Pribyl and Prime Minister Gross to be man enough to come here and defend their decisions - Mr Pribyl his decision not to resign his post and the prime minister his decision not to reopen the case because he considers it closed," Mr Rychlik told Czech radio.

According to Mr Rychlik, the prime minister said he would leave Mr Pribyl in his post for the time being. But Mr Gross added that he would sack him if it were proven that he either gave orders to beat anti-communist demonstrators or beat them himself.

The row comes as Czechs remember the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968, and mass protests in August 1969 against the communist regime which were suppressed by security forces.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.