Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has rejected reform of the country's election laws on the terms set by the opposition ahead of a re-run of the presidential poll later this month.
The opposition has called for electoral reform before it agrees to constitutional changes curbing presidential powers.
But Mr Kuchma sidestepped this demand, saying he would accept election reform if the issue was bundled together with constitutional reform to cut the presidency's powers.
"I am ready for further steps to lift this unmotivated tension so I propose once again looking at the whole package of bills to change the election law and on changing the constitution," he told a government meeting.
An opposition spokeswoman said the opposition's demands remained the same. "President Kuchma must first sack the government, which discredited itself and was linked to rigging the election, and the election commission," she said.
"A compromise always starts with a first step, and so far no first step has been taken." Parliament voted to sack Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, but Mr Kuchma has not signed a decree firing him.
Ms Benita Ferero-Waldner, the European Union's's commissioner for external relations, has said Ukraine must change its election law to ensure it can hold democratic elections.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner said she had met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Ukrainian opposition leader Mr Viktor Yushchenko kicked off campaigning for the December 26th presidential rerun with a call for speedy anti-fraud legislation.
Mr Yushchenko said little about his campaign proposals, but he repeated accusations that President Kuchma had blocked key electoral changes through his loyalists in parliament. He urged demonstrators to maintain their blockade of official buildings.
While thousands of pro-Yushchenko demonstrators marked two weeks of a round-the-clock vigil in downtown Kiev, supporters of his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, were defiant but largely out of sight in eastern regions near Russia - Mr Yanukovych's stronghold.
Mr Yanukovych has not been seen in public since Friday's Supreme Court decision cancelling his November 21st run-off victory over Mr Yushchenko.