KIEV, February 2 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian parliament has come to a preliminary agreement on a decree to set the country's next parliamentary elections for January 17, 2010, a deputy speaker told journalists on Monday.

The Ukrainian parliament, the Supreme Rada, will vote on the draft ruling next month.

"On the one hand, the draft decree stops discussions about changing the date of the presidential elections, and on the other [it] enables us to prepare the necessary legal groundwork," Ukraine's UNIAN news agency quoted Mykola Tomenko as saying.

The country's constitution states that the election must be held on the last Sunday of the last month of the fifth year of the Ukrainian president's term of office. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko took the presidential oath on January 23, 2005. However, the exact date must still be approved by parliament.

Tomenko added that presidential elections would definitely not take place later than January 17, but did not rule out the possibility of setting an earlier election date.

Ukrainian analysts say the elections could eventually take place from late December 2009 to January 2010. A deputy head of the president's office, Igor Pukshin, said that in line with the country's constitution, the elections should be scheduled for January 17, 2010.