KIEV, July 8 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of Ukraine's pro-Russian Party of Regions said Saturday he was planning to reconsider the relations between his country and Russia.

"Independent Ukraine means independent foreign policy," Viktor Yanukovich, who was nominated yesterday for the post of prime minister, said at the All-Ukraine deputies' forum in the capital, Kiev. "We must return to a calm, reasonable and self-assured tone in the Ukrainian foreign policy, especially in our relations with Russia."

The Party of Regions, which won the largest number of votes in a March election, but not enough to form a government on its own, teamed up with the Communist Party and the Socialists to form a new parliamentary coalition following the breakup of an alliance led by the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party.

"Ukraine has never been so close to the edge of an economic abyss as it is today, and we are facing a national catastrophe," Yanukovich said, adding that his party was urgently developing an action plan to lead the country out of the current crisis.