KIEV, Jan. 11 ??“ A former police chief who was accused of ordering a crackdown on peaceful demonstrators during the Orange Revolution two years ago was Wednesday appointed deputy internal affairs minister, lawmakers said Thursday.

The appointment of Serhiy Popkov was approved by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, but will most likely be opposed by President Viktor Yushchenko. This is the latest sign that political confrontation in Ukraine has been deepening.

The development shows that Yanukovych has been seeking to strengthen his control over police troops, despite an earlier order from Yushchenko that all appointments of top police officers must be cleared with the president.

Ironically, the appointment of Popkov came on a day when Yushchenko and Yanukovych have been meeting each other to try to find a compromise for preventing a looming constitutional crisis.

???We urge the prime minister to cancel the resolution and to remove Popkov from the post,??? Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine group in Parliament, said.

Popkov was accused of ordering the crackdown on demonstrators in November 2004, when thousands of supporters of Yushchenko, then the opposition candidate, had flocked to the downtown Kiev in protest against rigged presidential election.

Popkov apparently ordered riot police troops in Kiev and the Kiev region to attack the demonstrators, but the order had been aborted one hour later due to involvement of senior army officials.

???This appointment is a challenge to the Ukrainian society,??? Yuriy Lutsenko, an advisor to Yushchenko and a former internal affairs minister who had fired Popkov, said. ???The man who has ordered the release of live cartridges to the police troops to attack the demonstrators has neither moral nor political right to lead the ministry.???

Popkov has denied issuing the order to crack down on demonstrators. He said the police troops had been on a routine training mission when the alleged attack had been ordered.

The aborted order is thought to be the turning point in the Orange Revolution that had eventually paved the way for a peaceful transfer of power from then-President Leonid Kuchma to Yushchenko.

The appointment of Popkov, a highly controversial figure, will probably increase tensions between Yushchenko and Yanukovych.

???Today the coalition and the government of Yanukovych in a pointed manner get representatives of the Kuchma regime back,??? Kyrylenko said. ???They are returning the people that have been launching repressions against the citizens.??? (tl/ez)