The Czech Republic's leaders have chosen "Czechia" as the one-word alternative name of their country to make it easier for companies, politicians and sportsmen to use on products, name tags and jerseys.

The choice, agreed on Thursday evening by the president, prime minister, heads of parliament and foreign and defense ministers, must still win Cabinet approval before the Foreign Ministry can lodge the name with the United Nations and it becomes the country's official short name.

The Czech Republic emerged, along with Slovakia, from the peaceful breakup of the old Czechoslovakia in 1993. But so far there has been no standardized one-word English name for the Czech Republic, unlike, say, France, the shortened version of the French Republic.