Ukraine:Ukraine's prime minister and president agreed yesterday to hold early elections, apparently ending a month-long feud that has paralysed the country's politics.
After the latest in a series of tense meetings the president, Viktor Yushchenko, and the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, said parliament would meet next week to release budget funds for campaigning and decide when within 60 days the election would be held.
Mr Yushchenko officially dissolved parliament on April 2nd and called elections for May 24th. He subsequently put them back a month after the legislature, which is dominated by Mr Yanukovich's allies, refused to disband and challenged the presidential decree in court.
Yesterday's announcement was seen as a victory for Mr Yushchenko, but his party is still likely to trail Mr Yanukovich's in the election unless he can re-establish an alliance with Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's most popular pro-Western politician.
"I would not like for what happened today to be understood as the triumph of one force over another," Mr Yushchenko said.
Mr Yanukovich - who has been at loggerheads with Mr Yushchenko since losing out in the so-called Orange Revolution of late 2004 - told cheering supporters in Kiev that the only way out of the crisis was to hold "a democratic and honest election."
Recent polls suggest that Mr Yanukovich's party would attract about 33 per cent of votes, followed by Ms Tymoshenko on 18 per cent and Mr Yushchenko's bloc with 14 per cent.
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