KIEV, Dec 8: Ukraine's parliament passed a controversial plan to weaken the presidency on Wednesday, breaking a tense stand off between outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and the opposition and smoothing the way for a new presidential vote on December 26.

The vote was hailed in Ukraine and abroad as a breakthrough in the political crisis that has split this strategic nation in two polarized camps and sparked Cold War-like rhetoric between Russia and the west.

By a crushing majority of 402 to 21, deputies at the Upper Rada approved the Kuchma-backed amendment, which transfers many of the president's powers to parliament, along with electoral law changes demanded by the opposition.

The chamber erupted in applause as the result appeared on a huge electronic board on the wall and the 66-year-old Kuchma, who made a rare appearance in the chamber to urge deputies to support his favoured legislation, was among those clapping.

"Ukraine has gone through crisis several times and we always had the political will and understanding to make the right decisions," he told lawmakers minutes before the vote. "This is an act of consolidation and reconciliation that proves Ukraine is united and indivisible," parliament speaker Volodymyr Litvin said afterward.

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko called it "a day of compromise that ... opens the way for my victory" in the December 26 rematch with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, he said.

Speaking from the eastern city of Donetsk, Yanukovich slammed "a coup d'etat (that) is slowly taking place in the country today ... Chaos reigns and decisions are only taken by force".

Yushchenko was due to address his supporters later in the day in Kiev's Independence Square, where tens of thousands of people had gathered in his support round the clock for weeks in a so-called "orange revolution", named after the opposition colour.

Following the vote, the opposition lifted its blockade of government buildings in Kiev while a youth group, which has sent thousands of university students to the protests, called on them to return to classes.

Parliament's vote broke a tense faceoff between Kuchma and Yushchenko, sparked by a disputed election on November 21 that was later annulled, and clears the way for the new round of the poll on December 26.

It was expected to boost Yushchenko's chances of winning that poll, which will pit him anew against Yanukovich, but significantly weaken his powers in the post in case of victory.

The amendment transfers important powers from the presidency to parliament, where opposition forces are now in a minority, and is due to enter into force by January 1, 2006 at the latest. -AFP