Moscow - President Boris Yeltsin has accepted an agreement under which the Russian leader would lose the right to dismiss the Prime Minister without first winning parliament's consent, ITAR-TASS news agency said yesterday. It quoted the Kremlin chief-of-staff, Mr Nikolai Bordyuzha, as saying Mr Yeltsin "has sanctioned this version [of the agreement] to be used as a working draft".
Under the political non-aggression pact ratified earlier yesterday by Russia's top-ranking Security Council, Mr Yeltsin would keep the government in place until legislative elections in December while deputies would drop impeachment proceedings against him.
Mr Yeltsin (68) has previously said he would neither resign on account of ill-health nor agree to any constitutional amendments stripping him of power before his term expires in 18 months.