UKRAINE: Parties backing Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004 have signed a deal to form a coalition government which is aimed at keeping the pro-western administration on course to bring the country into the European mainstream.
The accord, nearly three months after elections, restores the unity of liberals who were behind mass protests that helped propel President Viktor Yushchenko to office late in 2004.
Yulia Tymoshenko, who will be reinstated as prime minister under the deal, announced its signature to parliament.
The coalition is made up of President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, Ms Tymoshenko's bloc and the Socialist Party.
"I have the great honour to announce the news awaited by the country for many months," Ms Tymoshenko told parliament.
"As of this minute, the coalition of democratic forces - Our Ukraine, the Tymoshenko bloc and Socialists, has been created in parliament."
Recalling that June 22nd marked the 65th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, she said: "Today we begin our fight to make our country democratic and free of corruption."
The Orange Revolution allies have been at odds since Mr Yushchenko, committed to nudging Ukraine towards European Union and Nato membership, fired the mercurial Ms Tymoshenko less than eight months into her mandate as prime minister.
Mr Yushchenko's party's allies have proposed as parliamentary speaker confectionery and media magnate Petro Poroshenko - Ms Tymoshenko's most voluble critic during her time in office.
Under new constitutional rules, the president has ceded many powers to parliament, which must form a majority within a 30-day deadline expiring this week.
The assembly also chooses the prime minister and has a further 30 days to produce a cabinet line-up.
The three parties won 243 of 450 assembly seats.
Mr Yushchenko, still a key player, accused Ms Tymoshenko of excessive ambition before relenting and agreeing she could return as prime minister.
The president - as set down by the constitution - is to be allowed to propose the defence and foreign ministers, who could well remain in their jobs. Ms Tymoshenko's bloc wants the finance and energy ministries and those portfolios could change hands.
The opposition Regions Party of Viktor Yanukovich, the main loser in the revolution, finished first in the March election, but with 186 seats, it could not form a government on its own.