Global fuel prices have been rising since the conflict started more than a month ago when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Czechs were paying 41.36 koruna ($1.94) per litre for petrol last weekend, up by 3.66 koruna from two weeks earlier, and 48.08 koruna for diesel, up by 6.29 koruna in the same period, according to monitoring firm CCS.

The government said from April 8 companies would not be allowed to make a profit of more than 2.5 koruna per litre.

Officials also cut the excise tax on diesel by 2.35 koruna per litre from the current 9.95 koruna.

"We are starting next Wednesday... to give the market some room to get ready," Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters.

He said the government would also set maximum prices to be paid by both individuals and companies daily at 1200 GMT, with weekend prices to be set on Friday and valid until Monday.

Babis, a billionaire in office since last December, leads a three-party nationalist government comprising his catch-all ANO party, the far-right SPD and the eurosceptic Motorists.

On Thursday, he criticised countries in the region for a lack of coordination on curbing fuel prices.

"We perceive what is happening in neighbouring countries, and each country is more or less doing whatever they want," he said.

Slovakia has set two fuel prices, one for locals and one for vehicles with foreign licence plates, to stop people driving across the border to get cheaper petrol.

And Poland slashed VAT on fuel from 23 percent to eight percent, which no other country in the region has done.

"Instead of coordinating prices within the region... we have total chaos," Babis said.