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Coalition, opposition in Ukraine disagree on early election date

KIEV, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's ruling coalition in parliament and the pro-presidential opposition party are debating a date for early elections, which the president and the premier agreed upon last week.

A month-long political standoff between the opposition and pro-premier coalition neared an end Friday when Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych agreed to hold early elections. The opposition insists that the elections be set for July and the ruling coalition is pushing for the fall.

"The country must emerge from the political crisis as soon as possible, and the Ukrainian president has clearly indicated this," said Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, leader of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine faction. The president has set early elections for June 24 in a decree, which the ruling coalition considers illegal.

The president is currently meeting with Kyrylenko and another opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, and is expected to see the premier later in the day, the presidential press service said.

The Supreme Rada will rule on the early elections Tuesday. "If early elections are to be held, they must be provided with a legal framework, which is not in place yet," Prime Minister Yanukovych said.

Rada Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, whose Socialist Party joined the ruling coalition with Yanukovych's Party of Regions and the Communists last summer, said early parliamentary elections were unlikely to change the situation.

"The results of snap elections will be the same as in 2006 - the Party of Regions will gain the majority and the president will have to find a compromise with this force," Moroz said, adding that it would be more expedient and cheaper for Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions to form a coalition but warned his party would then quit the current alliance.

Yanukovych, however, ruled out a new coalition with Our Ukraine, and said it should have been formed earlier, following the March 26 elections, when Party of Regions emerged as the leader. "We came across excessive political ambitions, which prevented such a coalition from being formed," the premier said in a reference to Our Ukraine.

He also called for abolishing all decisions adopted since April 2 when the president signed the first decree to dissolve parliament. "A zero option means that all previous decisions passed by all branches of power since April 2 must be annulled," he said. "We have discussed this with the president, and these agreements must be realized."

As the political impasse deteriorated, the ruling coalition also voted on a series of legislative initiatives but they were never signed into law by the president.

Most of the tent camps set up in central Kiev by protesters against the president's two decrees to dissolve Rada and call early elections have been dismantled after Yushchenko and Yanukovych reached a deal last week following four weeks of consultations.