UKRAINE:Ukraine's two combative leaders forged a compromise yesterday to hold a parliamentary election in September but, within hours, the prime minister said the deal was against his better judgment and must meet legal conditions.
Pro-western President Viktor Yushchenko announced the September 30th date after talks lasting until dawn with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, his rival from the 2004 "Orange Revolution".
But, shortly after, Mr Yanukovich said he had been persuaded to hold the election against his better judgment.
Mr Yushchenko dissolved parliament last month and called an election to the assembly. Months of confrontation pitting him against the prime minister, lionised by Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, have plunged the country into crisis.
Mr Yanukovich told a news conference in parliament that the president sought the election to pander to the opposition, which had helped secure his election after the 2004 "Orange" rallies.
"Let me stress that we did not initiate the process of an early election. I am sure there are no economic or social grounds for an early election," he told a news conference.
"This amounts to the ambitions of specific opposition politicians whom the president is trying to please."
But if the legislative framework were put in place for the poll, he said, "we are law-abiding people and we will comply".
He was blunter at a later rally outside the assembly, saying "troublemakers" stood behind the election. "Unfortunately, the president of Ukraine joined and supported them," he told a cheering crowd.
After weeks of turmoil, tension came to a head when the president said he was taking control of 30,000 interior ministry troops and then ordered new units sent to the capital.
None of the forces was seen in Kiev and local media quoted an interior ministry spokeswoman as saying they were being sent back to their bases.
Mr Yanukovich initially resisted two presidential decrees ordering an election, but later agreed to it.
Disputes over the election date generated further wrangling: the president wanted a quick poll, while Mr Yanukovich said none could be held before autumn.