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Party of Regions vows poll win if Ukrainian parliament disbanded

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"If common sense does not prevail and a coalition is not formed, the Party of Regions is ready for fresh elections," said Yevhen Kushnarev, the party's deputy chairman. "Then we will not negotiate with anyone, we will form a majority and put the house in order."
KIEV, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's main pro-Russia party raised the temperature in the post-election situation further Tuesday by saying it would win outright a new vote if the president dissolved parliament.

Over two months of wrangling following the March 26 have failed to produce the parliamentary coalition needed to form a government, which means President Viktor Yushchenko could disband the Supreme Rada if parliamentarians fail to strike a deal by the June 24 constitutional deadline.

Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which came first in the popular vote but was until recently frozen out of coalition negotiations, said it was confident it could win more than the 186 seats in the 450-seat Rada that it took in March.

"If common sense does not prevail and a coalition is not formed, the Party of Regions is ready for fresh elections," said Yevhen Kushnarev, the party's deputy chairman. "Then we will not negotiate with anyone, we will form a majority and put the house in order."

The Rada resumed plenary sessions Tuesday after a six-day recess in a bid to help break a deadlock in efforts to form a coalition and government.

The Rada has gone into recess three times since it opened May 25 after the March 26 elections March 26 failed to produce a clear winner. Coalition talks were initially held by three groups - pro-presidential groupings Our Ukraine, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, and the Socialist Party. But the talks broke down, mainly over differences on the allocation of key positions.

After the first talks broke down, Our Ukraine said it would start negotiations with Party of Regions, who was defeated by Yushchenko in the 2004 presidential election that led to the "orange revolution". The initiative was denounced by the Tymoshenko bloc, which refused from the start to deal with the Party of Regions.

Another Our Ukraine initiative to create a broad-based "grand coalition" also involving the Party of Regions was also rejected by Tymoshenko, who is seeking an "orange" coalition with Western-leaning political forces.

At the weekend, Our Ukraine continued talks with its "orange" allies and held discussions with the Party of Regions.

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