PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus said on Tuesday that comments by MP Jozef Wagner that he would not support the 1998 budget draft took him by surprise, and that he would not comment on whether there was room for negotiation. "His (Wagner's) demands yesterday were different from the day before, and what he suggested today was totally unknown," Klaus told Reuters. Wagner, an independent deputy and chairman of the budget committee, told parliament that he would not support the draft in its first reading because the expenditure side can mean nothing but further stagnation of the economy". Klaus's coalition controls 100 seats in the 200-seat lower house and the government needs Wagner to carry the day if the budget vote again follows party lines. When asked if there was room for compromise with Wagner, Klaus said: "We will see. But...it is not appropriate to comment at this moment." The debate on the 1998 balanced budget plan, which began on Tuesday and could topple Klaus's coalition if not approved, will be Wagner's third attempt to wield power with his swing vote since Prime Minister Václav Klaus's centre-right coalition failed to win a majority in 1996 elections. Wagner was thrown out of the opposition Social Democratic Party (CSSD) after he voted with the government to break the deadlock on the 1997 budget. Then after the Czech crown was battered in the spring, it was Wagner who withheld his support in a government confidence vote until the very end, leading Klaus to agree to parliament's vetting of bank privatisations, just minutes after the prime minister had ruled out such a concession.