KIEV, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian government headed by Yuriy Yekhanurov resigned Thursday as the newly elected parliament held its first session following elections late March.
The Supreme Rada voted by a majority to hold its next session on June 7, by which time the text of a coalition agreement will be presented for approval, as the bloc of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, pro-presidential Our Ukraine and the Socialist Party agreed to form a coalition as mandated under the country's Constitution.
Yekhanurov's cabinet will remain in place as a caretaker government until President Viktor Yushchenko approves a new prime minister and government from candidates proposed by the parliament. If parliament does not put forward candidates within a time limit of 30 days, Yushchenko has the right to disband the Rada and call new elections.
The former Soviet republic has been in parliamentary limbo since the March 26 vote ended in deadlock, as the pro-Russia Party of Regions finished 10% ahead of its nearest rival in the vote but has been frozen out of the coalition-building process as three other movements sought to do a deal.
Tymoshenko, the heroine of the "orange revolution" that swept Yushchenko to power in 2004, has made no secret of her ambition to come back as prime minister - a post from which Yushchenko sacked her in a very public fallout in September 2005 - while Our Ukraine seems likely to insist on its own candidate, Yekhanurov.
Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, a former prime minister, who was Yushchenko's main rival in the 2004 presidential elections, also has a good chance of getting the post, given his experience and his party's win in the parliamentary elections, analysts say.
