Ukraine parliament delays vote on new premier

Ukraine's new reformist authorities, unable to clinch an agreement on allocating cabinet posts, yesterday postponed for a day a parliamentary vote to endorse President Viktor Yushchenko's choice as prime minister.

Acting at the request of Mr Yushchenko, locked in tough negotiations over the composition and programme of a government committed to European integration, parliament put off until today a debate on approving Yulia Tymoshenko as premier.

Approval for Ms Tymoshenko appears all but assured after a week of talks. But agreement was being delayed by demands for more cabinet jobs by the Socialist party, one of Mr Yushchenko's allies.

"We have resolved all questions on today's agenda apart from the first and most important issue," Deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk told deputies. "But the president of Ukraine is not ready to decide on this at the moment."

Ms Tymoshenko, a former deputy premier chosen by Mr Yushchenko to oversee reforms to overturn more than a decade of post-Soviet misrule and nudge Ukraine into mainstream Europe, should have little trouble winning the backing of 226 of 450 deputies.

But the socialists under veteran Oleksander Moroz, who stood alongside him in mass protests that helped put him in power, have lobbied for more cabinet posts. They also want greater emphasis in the government programme on helping the poor.

"Oleksander Moroz is meeting with President Yushchenko... about different options for acting together," socialist Mykola Rudkovsky told reporters. "We socialists stand for a country on social principles, not the liberal ones proposed by the acting premier. We are ready to enter government, but only if we can influence its actions."

With no government yet in place, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier postponed talks planned for today, the first visit by a major Western figure since Mr Yushchenko's inauguration.

Mykola Tomenko, a close ally of Mr Yushchenko, said the president was willing to wait to ensure broad agreement. "Ukraine waited for a professional team as a government for 14 years," he said. "I think we can wait one more day."

Ms Tymoshenko is to present her team and may seek approval for a programme to preclude any attempt to dismiss her government before next year's parliamentary election.

Policy goals released today called for an overhaul of institutions, creation of a civil society and better social benefits, but there were few concrete proposals or figures.