KIEV, March 29 (RIA Novosti) - Leaders of the various parties in the pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc said Wednesday they were leaning toward an "orange" coalition in the country's newly elected parliament.
The Our Ukraine press service said the coalition - which would also include former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc and the Socialist Party - could be joined by other parties and movements, including the Party of Regions, currently leading the count from Sunday's vote.
With 93.24% of Sunday's vote counted, the Party of Regions currently has 31.26% of the vote, followed by Tymoshenko's bloc (22.47%), Our Ukraine (14.48%), the Socialist Party (5.87%) and the Communist Party (3.63%). Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn's bloc, with 2.45%, currently looks unlikely to negotiate the 3% threshold necessary for party-list seats in the 450-seat Rada.
Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said the possible coalition might start a dialog with the Party of Regions if former prime minister and 2004 presidential candidate Yanukovych met three conditions.
"The first is to reject ideas of federalism, the second to reject state status for the Russian language, and the third to recognize Ukraine's path toward European integration," the minister said.
Party of Regions campaign head Yevgeniy Kushnarev said Wednesday his party backed a form of "soft" federalism to unite the country and heal the splits caused by the 2004 "orange revolution" that brought President Viktor Yushchenko to power.
"We have an understanding or a formula for how to unite Ukraine and to make it [unified]," Kushnarev said. "We speak of 'soft' federalism or European regionalism, which is widely popular in Europe."
He also said the party was willing to work with any groups in the new parliament, and that it favored constructive relations with Russia, while seeking European integration but not EU membership.
Speculation about a possible parliamentary coalition began after exit polls on Sunday indicated the vote was likely to be split. Yushchenko Monday instructed incumbent Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov to begin coalition talks as the Party of Regions began opening up a substantial gap over its rivals.
An "orange coalition" would reunite the various groups that backed Yushchenko in 2004. The groups fractured after Yushchenko's election, and Tymoshenko was dismissed as prime minister by Yushchenko last September after just seven months in office.
