Ukraine parliament brings down govt

Ukraine's parliament has voted to sack the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich boosting opposition efforts to end a political crisis triggered by his contested election last month as president.

"This is a victory not only for the opposition, but for the entire Ukrainian people," opposition deputy Roman Zvarych said.

Deputies also voted on Wednesday to create an interim "government of national trust".

The vote, passed at the second attempt through secret ballot, came just before the start of efforts by international mediators to help settle the crisis which threatens to tear apart Ukraine.

Earlier, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma made clear he would not easily yield in his battle with the opposition by rejecting its key demand that the November 21 presidential run-off his protege won be held again.

"Any rerun would simply be a farce. I cannot see it in any other way and I will never support it as it would be unconstitutional," he told a meeting of economic officials.

After Tuesday's talks collapsed between opposition and government factions, protesters clad in the orange campaign colours of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko marched to the assembly, hoping for a resolution to allow a new poll.

The opposition, which says Yanukovich won through fraud, pulled out of talks with authorities and vowed to use "People Power" to win demands for a new election soon.

The Supreme Court was sitting for a third day to decide whether the election was fraudulent.

If it rules in favour of the opposition, the Central Election Commission will have to revoke the victory it handed to Yanukovich and can then either set a repeat vote or a completely new election which would take up to three months to complete.

US President George W. Bush called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis that has triggered mass street protests and threatened to tear apart the former Soviet republic.

Bush said he had spoken by telephone to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, one of the international mediators trying to broker a way out of a standoff that has paralysed government and is beginning to hit Ukraine's economy.

The sides have been deadlocked, neither with quite enough power to deliver the final blow and aware that one false step could trigger mass violence in a country which has voted largely along linguistic and cultural lines.

So bitter has the political debate become that the losing side faces being completely shut out of power. "It's very important that violence not break out there, and it's important that the will of the people be heard," Bush told reporters.

Kuchma, who has warned the economy could collapse, was meeting officials to consider measures to stabilise the financial markets.

His 10-year rule tarnished by scandal and poor economic management, the president has suggested he might yield to pressure and a new election.

But he has suggested staging a new poll from scratch, a process which would keep him in office beyond his current term.

Analysts say he may hope that by dragging out the crisis, opposition supporters will tire of spending day after day on the streets and night after night in tents in wintry weather.

Yushchenko, a liberal, wants closer ties to Western Europe but not at the expense of vital links with Russia.

Yanukovich represents the status quo which under Kuchma meant clear focus on ties with Russia, which has dominated Ukraine for centuries and is the major source for its energy needs. More exports, however, go to the European Union.

Their world view differs widely, with Yushchenko looking to the European Union that has expanded up to Ukraine's borders as crucial to the country's hopes of raising the economy.

His opponent looks more to achieve that goal with traditional partners in the former Soviet Union. That divide inevitably colours the attitudes of the mediators.

The EU sees Ukraine, with its industrial and agricultural might still to be exploited, as a future member.

For Russia, it is part of the family. Its loss to the embrace of the West would underline the Kremlin's dwindling influence in a region it once ruled.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who arrived in Kiev on Tuesday and met Kuchma, said any solution "had to lie in Ukraine's legal framework, ruling out any use of force".

Kwasniewski, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Boris Gryzlov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, were arriving on Wednesday to attend talks.

All the mediators took part in talks in Kiev last week that produced a "working group" involving both sides.