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KIEV, Nov 30: An East-West standoff over Ukraine hardened Tuesday as the pro-Western opposition demanded the dismissal of the pro-Russia government after parliament rejected an earlier no-confidence motion , and turned down overtures for resolving a fiercely-disputed presidential vote.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana meanwhile flew to Kiev in an effort to mediate and a Ukrainian opposition spokeswoman said he would be joined by Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, as Russian President Vladimir Putin again warned against "foreign pressure" in defusing the crisis.
With Ukraine's political deadlock in its ninth day, its parliament voted down a motion of no-confidence in the government of pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich put forward by his chief rival for the presidency, Viktor Yushchenko, who has demanded Yanukovich's dismissal.
The assembly promised to reconvene on Wednesday to debate a similar measure. Yanukovich floated two ideas for ending the crisis that has paralyzed Ukraine since the November 21 presidential election.
Under one, he offered to give Yushchenko the post of prime minister if confirmed as president; under the other, he agreed to a new vote, provided neither man stood again. Yushchenko rejected both overtures. "I cannot accept these proposals," he told reporters.
Shortly afterwards however, a top aide to Yushchenko announced that the opposition was breaking off negotiations on the crisis, resuming a blockade of government premises in Kiev and demanding that parliament reconvene in emergency session overnight.
That session must have two questions on the agenda: the dismissal of the Yanukovich government along with Prosecutor General Hennadi Vassiliev, and the creation of a temporary "people's government," opposition spokesman Taras Spetskiv announced to protesters on a central Kiev square.
EU MEDIATION: The European Union meanwhile said Solana was heading to Kiev for consultations with all sides and would afterwards travel to Moscow in a fresh effort to help broker a negotiated resolution.
"What we think is necessary would be to have a re-run of the elections," Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters in The Hague.
PUTIN'S WARNING: The Russian president held a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder but accounts of that talk from the two countries differed in key respects.
A German government spokesman said Mr Putin and Schroeder "were in agreement that the result of a new election which takes place on the basis of the Ukrainian constitution and reflects the political will of the Ukrainian people must be strictly respected." That phraseology suggested Putin was onboard with the idea of holding a new election. -AFP
Bush phones Polish leader
WASHINGTON: US President George Bush on Tuesday called the president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who was due in Kiev, to express "strong support" for a European role in resolving the disputed election in Ukraine.
"President Bush spoke this morning with President Kwasniewski and conveyed our strong support for European mediation in that phone call," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. -AFP
