Ukraine's new parliament to open its first session

Ukraine's newly elected lawmakers planned to hold their first session Thursday, as talks continued between the country's reformist, pro-Western parties to put together a governing coalition.

Photo: Ukraine's new parliament to open its first session

Ukraine's new parliament to open its first session

President Viktor Yushchenko was expected to address the 450-member chamber, which was elected more than eight weeks ago in a vote praised as the freest and fairest ever in thisex-Soviet republic.

The pro-Moscow Party of Regions won the most votes, and will take 186 seats in the new parliament. But it fell short of a majority, paving the way for the estranged Orange Revolution allies to try to overcome their differences and reunite. If formed, the so-called Orange coalition is expected to keep nudging Ukraine out of Moscow's shadow, pressing ahead with possible NATO and European Union membership.

Ousted Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the most popular figures during the 2004 mass protests, won 129 parliamentary seats for her bloc, while Yushchenko's bloc took 81. The Socialists, who back Yushchenko, and the Communists have 33 and 21.

The parties will have 30 days to form a coalition to serve under Yushchenko. One of the biggest obstacles has been who gets the powerful prime minister's job, a position Tymoshenko wants for herself. Her bitter falling out with Yushchenko last year, however, soured relations, and the president has said he was reluctant to try such a partnership again. But it is unlikely Tymoshenko would agree to surrender her claim to the job and support another candidate from the Orange team.

Yushchenko's alternative would be a union with the Party of Regions, led by Viktor Yanukovych, the man whom Yushchenko accused of trying to steal the presidency in 2004.

An opinion poll by Kiev's Razumkov Center found that nearly 40 percent of those polled would like to see a coalition between Yushchenko's bloc, Tymoshenko's and the Socialists. Some 17 percent said they wanted to see a union between Yushchenko's Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions, while 13 percent wanted all the parties except the Communists to unite. The poll, which surveyed 2,000 people, had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.

On Wednesday, Tymoshenko and Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz announced that they had agreed on a draft coalition agreement. A news conference was scheduled between Tymoshenko, Moroz and one of Our Ukraine's chief negotiators, Roman Bezsmertny, for Thursday morning, suggesting a deal might be close, reports the AP.

I.L.