AN agreement settling the political crisis in Belarus was reached overnight in Minsk after talks between the president of Belarus and the presidents of the republic's parliament and constitutional court, it was reported early this morning.
THE Russian Prime Minister Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, arrived in Minsk last night to meet the Belarus President, Mr Alexander Lukashenko, in a last minute mediation attempt to resolve his differences with parliament.
On Wednesday, Mr Lukashenko had snubbed Russian efforts to mediate in the constitutional crisis. Yesterday, before Mr Chernomyrdin's arrival, Mr Lukashenko told a rally of his supporters he was prepared to "sacrifice everything" to gain his objectives.
The Belarus leader is holding a referendum on Sunday aimed at greatly increasing his powers and entrenching them in the national constitution. The parliament has, meanwhile, started impeachment proceedings against him.
Yesterday parliamentary leaders from Russia and Belarus appealed for compromise. "We urge both sides, the parliament and the president, to sit down together at the negotiating table and seek a form of compromise," Mr Yegor Stroyev, chairman of Russia's upper house of parliament, told reporters after 90 minutes of talks.
"We reached a unanimous opinion that any further deepening of the conflict between the two branches of power in Belarus would bring the Belarussian people nothing but division, tragedy and trouble."
John Palmer adds: The growing crisis in Belarus is being followed with increasing concern in Brussels. Mr Lukashenko has said he wants to meet EU heads of government either at the European security conference in Lisbon, or the EU summit in Dublin next month.
"The situation in Belarus is becoming extremely serious and it is certain that the European Union will have to react if Lukashenko takes the country further back from democracy to full scale authoritarian rule," one Commission official said yesterday.
"Now we hear that he [Lukashenko] wants a face to face meeting with European Union heads of government to discuss the crisis."
EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels on Monday, will discuss the latest developments and any results from the weekend referendum. They will also debate whether to jettison formally the proposed co operation agreement with Belarus and how to respond to the invitation for a meeting with Mr Lukashenko.
In common with the other former republics of the Soviet Union, the EU had hoped to negotiate a partnership and co operation agreement with Belarus.