Czech President Vaclav Klaus to be armed with thousands of pens

More than 5,000 Czechs have signed up to a Facebook campaign to mail pens to Czech President Vaclav Klaus after a video of him sheepishly pocketing a pen he took an obvious liking to during an official signing ceremony last week in Chile became widely popular on the Internet.

Klaus says it's customary for leaders to keep pens after signing accords. But the manner in which he sized up the pen - encrusted with semiprecious Chilean stones - and then sneakily slipped it into his pocket while he sat at a desk alongside Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has earned him the ridicule of some of his countrymen, according to Indian Express.

The Czech Foreign Ministry declined comment when asked if they thought Mr Klaus' huge YouTube exposure could harm the country's image.

The conservative leader relishes being at odds with the mainstream and his views often dramatically differ from those of his archrival Vaclav Havel, whom he replaced as president in 2003.

Mr Klaus has been publicly at odds with the widely-held view that humanity is the probable cause of global warming, and is a strong opponent of gay marriage in what is considered one of Europe's more liberal nations, Telegraph.co.uk reports.