Hungary's Supreme Court will be left without its top leadership after President Laszlo Solyom's refusal to appoint a new deputy chief justice, Nepszabadsag daily said on Friday.

Solyom refused to appoint Janos Zamathy as the court's deputy chairman on Thursday, stating that only the chair of the court has the right to appoint a deputy.

The Supreme Court has been without a chairman since last June, and the current deputy Bertalan Kaposvari, who has acted as chairman since then, will retire at the end of March.

The lack of Supreme Court chief justice and deputy will not cause problems in processing cases submitted to the court but there will be nobody authorised to sign high-value expenses and make human-resource policy decisions, said the paper.

The President's Office said Solyom would urgently put forward a new candidate for the court's top post. However, despite the rejection of his past two candidates by the parliamentary parties, the president has repeatedly stated that he would not consult with them over his choice of candidate.