Ukraine PM claims president plotting a coup

UKRAINE:Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko has refused to reverse a decision to dissolve parliament and call early elections, despite accusations from allies of prime minister Viktor Yanukovich that the move was an illegal first step in a creeping coup d'etat.

Several thousand supporters of Mr Yanukovich massed in central Kiev yesterday to oppose the president's edict. The European Union called for a calm resolution to the latest stage in a bitter dispute that stretches back to the Orange Revolution of late 2004.

Mr Yushchenko ordered parliament to disband and called elections for May 27th in response to Mr Yanukovich's alleged attempts to illegally poach his supporters and secure a two-thirds majority in the legislature, which would allow him to ignore the president's veto, change the constitution and even impeach the head of state.

However, parliament, where Mr Yanukovich's supporters hold about 260 of the 450 seats, refused to disband and asked the constitutional court to rule on the legality of Mr Yushchenko's order. "The decree is not just a mistake. It is aimed against the country, the Ukrainian people," Mr Yanukovich told his supporters at their hastily erected tent camp in Kiev after he met the president yesterday afternoon.

The president's press service said he had used the meeting to insist on the swift implementation of his decree to disband parliament and prepare for elections.

Earlier he met military and security chiefs to order them not to get involved in the crisis.

In a live television address late on Monday, Mr Yushchenko told Ukrainians his dramatic decision was "prompted by a crucial need to preserve the state, its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

That statement alluded to the strong ties that link Mr Yanukovich's bloc to Russia, Ukraine's neighbour and former Soviet master, which alienate the president and others who want to lead Ukraine into the EU and Nato.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin embarrassingly congratulated Mr Yanukovich on a free and fair presidential election victory in November 2004, just as street protests against the vote's gross irregularities evolved into the so-called Orange Revolution, which ultimately forced an election re-run that swept Mr Yushchenko to power.

His reformist bloc soon collapsed amid constant squabbling, however, and he lost the support of Yulia Tymoshenko, the charismatic leader of the main pro-western party whom he fired from the post of prime minister in September 2005.

Mr Yanukovich's party capitalised on the deep divisions in the "orange" bloc and won a general election last March. He was named prime minister in August.

Since then, he has consistently eroded the president's powers, ousted his supporters from key offices and cooled Ukraine's advances towards the EU and Nato, ultimately prompting pro-western parties to storm out of parliament in fury last month.

Last Sunday about 70,000 opponents of Mr Yanukovich rallied in Kiev to oppose his gradual accumulation of power, and heard Ms Tymoshenko urge the president to disband parliament.

Surveys suggest Mr Yanukovich's party would win a fresh ballot unless the orange forces reunite around Ms Tymoshenko. However, Ukraine would still be split and President Yushchenko has historically found it almost as hard to work with Ms Tymoshenko as with Mr Yanukovich.