Ukraine: Ukraine's "orange" political parties yesterday edged towards forming a coalition government, ending more than two months of deadlock.
A dispute between President Victor Yushchenko and his former prime minister, Julia Tymoshenko, has left Ukraine's parliament unable to agree on a new government since elections on March 26th.
However, the two politicians who led the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution appear to have patched up their differences, principally over Ms Tymoshenko's insistence that she be the new prime minister.
Tetyana Mokridi, a spokeswoman for Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, said yesterday that talks were being finalised with Ms Tymoshenko's party, the Party of Julia Tymoshenko, and the smaller Socialist Party.
Ms Tymoshenko said in a televised interview that if Our Ukraine agreed to the coalition, she would support Mr Yushchenko's bid for re-election in 2009. Otherwise she would run against him.
In return, she is expected to be named the new prime minister early next week, although there has been no official announcement.
Barring a last-minute change of heart - something not to be ruled out in a country with a feisty political climate - Ukraine is expected to emerge with a pro-Nato, pro-EU administration.
This coalition will leave the largest single party, the ethnic-Russian Party of Regions, out in the cold.
The Party of Regions is led by Victor Yanukovich, a former prime minister blamed by "orange" voters for rigging the election of December 2004 that triggered three weeks of street protests.
In this year's parliamentary elections, the split in the "orange" ranks allowed Mr Yanukovich's party to grab pole position. However, he has been unable to capitalise on this by bringing either of the "orange" parties into a coalition of his own.
The announcement of an impending coalition comes after several turbulent weeks of protests in Crimea over the presence of US military personnel invited for a Nato exercise.