Ukraine: president refuses to participate in round-table talks

President Viktor Yushchenko refused to take part in a planned round-table Wednesday aimed at solving Ukraine's four-month political stalemate, dealing a fresh blow to the parliament majority coalition's efforts to put the president's Orange Revolution rival in the premier's seat.

Photo: Ukraine: president refuses to participate in round-table talks

The round-table, announced by Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, had been billed as a last-ditch effort ahead of the president's Aug. 2 deadline to decide on how to respond to Viktor Yanukovych's nomination to be prime minister.

Yushchenko's office said participation in the round-table was not on his schedule, adding that it was up to Yushchenko's office to determine the president's activities in what seemed to be a thinly veiled barb atMoroz.

Yanukovych's pro-Russian Party of Regions won the most seats in March elections, but fell short of a majority. The Western-leaning party of Yushchenko and two other parties announced a coalition in June, but that collapsed when Moroz's Socialist Party defected and joined forces with the Party of Regions and the Communists, the AP reports.