Yushchenko presses on with new government

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, brushing off defiant criticism by his ex-premier, pressed ahead yesterday with plans to install a new government and analysts expected a new team to be in place soon.

As Ukrainians digested Friday's tour de force by Yulia Tymoshenko, sacked by Yushchenko, his acting prime minister said he would assemble a team of experts rather than politicians to run the country until next year's parliamentary elections.

Yushchenko asked Yury Yekhanurov, a regional governor and liberal economist, to form a new cabinet after sacking Tymoshenko, his staunch ally in last December's "Orange Revolution", amid infighting and graft allegations.

The public bickering among the main leaders of last year's pro-Western "Orange Revolution" has seriously damaged confidence among many Ukrainians in Yushchenko's eight-month leadership.

Tymoshenko, herself a considerable force inside Ukraine, said on Friday she had been sacked unjustly and fallen victim to intriguing by corrupt Yushchenko aides who had manipulated him.

She said she was forming a parallel team that would compete with the Yushchenko camp in key parliamentary elections in March 2006 that will redraw Ukraine's political landscape.

Analysts however said they expected a quick end to the crisis, in line with Yushchenko's expectations, saying Yekhanurov stood a good chance of winning the required majority of 226 votes in the divided Rada (parliament).

Yushchenko planned to meet today with Yekhanurov and some parliamentary faction leaders, his chief of staff Oleh Rybachuk told reporters.

A foreign expert in Kiev, who did not wish to be named, said Yekhanurov would appeal to centrist forces in parliament much more than Tymoshenko with her often populist declarations and leftist political views.

Tymoshenko and her allies said they would seek no role in the Yekhanurov team. She said she expected to be in government again in the future after the parliamentary poll.

Some critics have said Yushchenko's administration was too close to big business, despite pledging to root out the cronyism under his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.

Yekhanurov said he would start work on the budget draft for next year already tomorrow. The government should submit the draft budget to parliament by September 15.

He also pledged to soften interventionist policies of the previous government and said there would be no reprivatisation of the sort Tymoshenko had recommended.