The government, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who rivaled President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 elections, submitted the 2007 draft budget to the president in mid-September.
"Thorough analysis has shown that the draft document offers no clear strategy for achieving declared goals, and even clashes in some places with the declared priorities of the government's budget policy in 2007," Yushchenko said in a letter to the premier cited by the press service.
The president also asked the government to ensure that social allocations were no lower than in 2006 and requested state support for the least socially protected sections of Ukraine's 47.5 million people.
Yushchenko also said budget spending on investment must be transparent, while privatization should be open and efficient. He also called for the list of facilities that are the most attractive for privatization to be extended, and state support for the small and medium-sized business substantially increased.
Yushchenko also recommended that the Cabinet increase financing for Ukraine's armed forces, the defense sector and priority health and cultural projects.
"I am sure that the implementation of these areas of state policy will make it possible to provide national security and defend constitutional guarantees of Ukrainian citizens," Yushchenko said in his letter, adding that if his recommendations were not taken into consideration, he would veto the document.
West-leaning Yushchenko decided to recommend Yanukovych's candidacy for premier in August after four months of political wrangling in the wake of parliamentary elections in the ex-Soviet republic that failed to produce a clear winner. But the former arch rivals still have diverging views on the country's future, including its accession to NATO and the European Union.
