'Gas princess' strives to become Ukraine's PM

For the fourth day in a row, Ukraine’s Rada, or parliament, will try to appoint the leader of the parliamentary coalition, Yulia Timoshenko as prime minister. President Yushchenko has again put forward Timoshenko.

Timoshenko lacked just one vote in her favour. Twice in a row 225 deputies supported her instead of the required minimum of 226.

The leaders of Yulia Timoshenko's bloc did not hesitate to accuse their rival Party of Regions of falsifying electronic voting results.

Timoshenko said the system tripped-out two votes of deputies who supported her. Meanwhile, the Party of Regions denied the accusations. Experts later confirmed there was no external interference in the voting system.

The Party of Regions demanded an apology saying it would block the work of parliament until it receives it.

Parliament will now decide on the voting method as deputies of Yulia Timoshenko's bloc insist the voting system is unreliable.

“The Party of Regions is trying to slow down the whole process – of this voting and of Timoshenko’s appointment. And it is trying to put some other issues on the parliamentary agenda,” said Ivan Presnyakov, a political analyst, the International Centre for Politics studies.