Two parties out of three reject broad coalition in Ukraine

Yulia Timoshenko's Bloc and the Our Ukraine Party have announced they would not agree to form a coalition with the Party of Regions, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. Earlier, President Viktor Yushchenko proposed to create such a coalition.

“Political stability can be achieved only if there is political consensus by the three political forces. They need to start political dialogue, in which they need to discuss the creation of the majority and their relations. I shall be prepared to act as a guarantor of an agreement between them,” President Yushchenko said.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich welcomed the idea and offered to begin political consultations, according to his press service.

Yulia Timoshenko turned down the presidential offer. She pointed out that her party has an exclusive cooperation agreement with the presidential  Our Ukraine People's Self Defence party, and threatened her bloc would go into opposition if the President's and the Prime Minister's parties form a coalition.

While representatives of the Party of the Regions said that they were expecting to hold talks on the possible coalition later in the day with the Our Ukraine Party, the leader of the latter, Yury Lutsenko, contended that there had been no negotiations planned, and nothing of the kind would be possible. He said the only coalition his party would be prepared to look at is that with the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc.

The final results of Sunday's parliamentary elections are expected to be announced today.

Ukraine's parliament, the Rada, was dismissed by the President in March. Snap elections were held across the country on September 30.

According to last counts, the Party of Regions, headed by the country's Prime Minister, Victor Yanukovich,  gained 34.4% of the votes. Second to come was the pro-Western Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko with 30.7%. The presidential Our Ukraine People's Self Defence party got 14.2%.