Ukraine parties get coalition deadline

UKRAINE:Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko has given Ukraine's feuding parties five days to form a coalition government, despite early signs that a deal could prove elusive.

Prime minister Viktor Yanukovich, the head of the Regions Party that took the most votes in the September 30th general election, said yesterday that it was too soon for coalition talks and he would only join a ruling alliance that he was allowed to lead.

That suggestion was immediately rejected by Yulia Tymoshenko, an enemy of Mr Yanukovich who led her party to second place in the election, and who has been promised the premiership by key members of the president's party, her probable coalition partner.

"I call on all political sides to start consultations and political talks and to propose a coalition and a prime minister within five days," Mr Yushchenko said after meeting the five parties that won seats in the election.

Parties that led the 2004 "Orange Revolution", which scuppered Mr Yanukovich's presidential ambitions and swept Mr Yushchenko to power, won a slender majority of 228 seats, two more than required to win votes on most issues.

Mr Yushchenko has urged the "orange" parties to form a coalition, but only in co-operation with Mr Yanukovich, who is particularly popular in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine.

Mr Yanukovich said it was impossible to finalise a new government before the president's deadline, insisting that talks could only begin once full election results had been published and a five-day period for any legal challenges had elapsed. "If we enter the coalition, the post of prime minister will be ours," he added. "If that doesn't happen, we will be in opposition."

Ms Tymoshenko said a coalition could be formed "in a day, maximum two days" after official results are published, and Regions Party members could become deputy ministers and assume leadership of the accounts chamber, which monitors government spending. She has demanded the post of prime minister, however, and wants an ally from Mr Yushchenko's party to fill the powerful role of parliamentary speaker.