KIEV, Dec. 5 ??“ President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday ordered Boris Tarasiuk to continue to assume duties of the foreign minister after a local court had ruled to suspend Parliament??™s controversial resolution dismissing the minister.

The move shows Yushchenko has been aggressively defending Tarasiuk in order to maintain Ukraine??™s pro-Western foreign policy, which had been persistently attacked by pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

The development suggests that the conflict between the pro-Western president and the pro-Russian government has been widening fast, making further escalation inevitable.

???There will be a confrontation,??? Adam Martyniuk, deputy speaker of Parliament and a senior member of the coalition, said Tuesday. ???It??™s hard to say what the president was guided by.???

Yushchenko??™s decree re-assuring Tarasiuk??™s authority as the minister underscores a turnaround in the president??™s position towards a more aggressive defense of his powers in a four-month standoff with the government.

Yanukovych, encouraged by controversial constitutional amendments enacted earlier this year, had been pushing to widen his powers. He gained control over economic and financial policies and had been seeking to define the country??™s foreign and defense policies despite the constitution leaving both in the hands of the president.

Parliament, led by the coalition, voted last week to dismiss Tarasiuk and Internal Affairs Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, another ally of Yushchenko. The coalition also prepared a motion to dismiss Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko in an apparent bid to slow down Ukraine??™s accession to NATO.

Yushchenko on Tuesday told the coalition to keep its hands off Hrytsenko, saying ???the army must not be a hostage of politics.???

The constitution authorizes the president to nominate foreign and defense ministers, but their appointments must be approved by Parliament. However, the constitution does not clearly stipulate whether the president must approve the dismissal before Parliament votes to sack these two ministers.

This and other areas of the constitution have been causing major clashes between the president and the prime minister over supremacy in defining domestic and foreign policies. Unless these problems are solved through an arrangement between political groups, they could trigger a constitutional crisis.

Tarasiuk on Monday appealed Parliament??™s resolution dismissing him from the post and the Shevchenkovskiy district court in Kiev on Tuesday had ruled to suspend the resolution.

???Today the resolution was suspended,??? Tarasiuk said.

The ruling and the subsequent presidential decree re-assuring Tarasiuk??™s authority show the way that may be used by Hrytsenko if the coalition moves to dismiss him. (tl/ez)