PRESIDENT VIKTOR Yushchenko dissolved Ukraine's parliament last night and called the country's third election in as many years.
"I hereby declare the activities of . . . parliament to be suspended and call an early parliamentary election," he said in a television address to the nation.
The announcement came just hours after Mr Yushchenko told party bosses he was giving them time "to take an initiative so that leaders in parliament can find a way out of the stalemate". But most of those present emerged from the meeting convinced Mr Yushchenko would call snap elections, despite a profound lack of public enthusiasm for another ballot and opinion polls that his party would do poorly in a vote.
Ukraine's pro-western ruling alliance collapsed last month, when Mr Yushchenko's allies refused to work with prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko after she joined forces with the Russia-friendly Regions Party in a vote to reduce the president's powers.
Mr Yushchenko accused Ms Tymoshenko of "treachery" and trying to stage a constitutional coup, in remarks which further soured the already fractious relationship between the two leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution.
Ms Tymoshenko had offered to withdraw support for the legislation and said another round of elections would destabilise the country. She also accuses Mr Yushchenko of seeking to undermine her government and damage her popularity. The president claims she covets his job, runs an incompetent administration and is trying to enlist Russia's support by soft-pedalling her criticism of its military action in Georgia.
"I am convinced, deeply convinced, that the democratic coalition was ruined by one thing alone - human ambition. The ambition of one person," Mr Yushchenko said, in clear reference to Ms Tymoshenko, in a speech that appeared to have been recorded before his current visit to Italy.
Surveys suggest a snap vote would favour none of the major parties, which appear to have lost support in the wrangling that has paralysed Ukraine since last autumn's general election.
Polls predict that Ms Tymoshenko's bloc would take 18-24 per cent of votes, neck-and-neck with the Regions Party of former premier Viktor Yanukovich on 20-23 per cent. Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party is forecast to take just 4-10 per cent of votes.
Smaller parties like the Communists and the group led by former parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn are expected to benefit from the latest fiasco and attract a sizeable protest vote.
Ms Tymoshenko is expected to strongly oppose the call for snap elections, and perhaps launch a legal challenge to a decision which she has said would be unconstitutional, because the government has served less than 12 months in office.
She has also suggested that she might demand that presidential elections be brought forward from 2010 and be held at the same time as any new general election.
The political turmoil comes at a time of great uncertainty for Ukraine.
Kiev is in the middle of sensitive talks with Russia on a gas supply deal for next year and, following Moscow's military intervention in Georgia, some experts fear the Kremlin may seek to destabilise Ukraine's largely ethnic-Russian Crimea peninsula.
Kiev's bids to move closer to the European Union and Nato - and to prepare for the Euro 2012 football championships - have also ground to a halt.
Mr Yushchenko did not name a date for the election, but the constitution states that a ballot should take place no more than 60 days after the dissolution of parliament.
