KIEV, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian parliament announced Wednesday it would prolong until June 14 its two-week recess that started on May 25, fuelling further speculation over its future.
Pro-presidential bloc Our Ukraine - part of the mooted "orange coalition" with the bloc of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the Socialist Party - moved to extend the recess at the beginning of today's session to continue consultations on forming the coalition.
The proposal was supported by 227 out of 450 votes.
Under Ukraine's Constitution, parliament has to form a coalition majority within a month after it starts work. If parliamentarians fail to strike an agreement, the president is entitled to disband the legislature and call new elections.
Three-way talks aimed at freezing out the pro-Russian Party of Regions - which claimed the largest single share of the vote in the indecisive March elections - have been slowed by disagreements on key appointments. Tymoshenko is thought to want to return to her old post as prime minister, from which she was sacked by Yushchenko last September after eight months in charge amid accusations of government corruption.
President Viktor Yushchenko said on June 2 that the new parliament's key tasks would be to swear in Constitutional Court judges and discuss an international military exercise on Ukrainian territory.
A wave of anti-NATO protests has seized the Crimea, a largely Russian-speaking region on the Black Sea, after a U.S. cargo vessel called at the port of Feodosia in late May ahead of an exercise, Sea Breeze-2006, with the United States. Many assumed the move was part of Kiev's bid to join the North Atlantic alliance.
In February, the previous Ukrainian parliament banned foreign troops from entering the country to take part in military exercises on Ukrainian soil. But Ukrainian prosecutors said the Advantage had not violated Ukrainian legislation.
Yushchenko said a parliamentary coalition agreement was "too vague" on the country's relations with NATO and should contain a more precise position.
