KIEV, April 2 ??“ President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday dismissed Parliament and ordered early election for May 27 after consultations with major political groups had failed to resolve severe political crisis in Ukraine.

Yushchenko reacted to attempts by pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to massively recruit individual opposition lawmakers to expand the ruling coalition that would give it nearly an absolute power.

???My act is motivated by acute necessity to preserve the nation, its territorial integrity and sovereignty,??? Yushchenko said in live televised address to the nation shortly after signing the decree.

Meanwhile, the tensions were set to further escalate as Yanukovych??™s allies in Parliament had held an emergency session late Monday to approve resolution declaring Yushchenko??™s decree unconstitutional. Parliament also voted against allocating money for the new election.

The development follows eight months of increasing tensions between the pro-Western president and the pro-Russian prime minister over the country??™s foreign policy and the pace of economic reforms.

The constitution allows the government coalition to define domestic and economic policies, but it leaves the country??™s foreign policy at the hands of the president.

However, Yanukovych and his allies have been persistently seeking to stop Yushchenko??™s pro-Western foreign policy, such as accession to NATO, in favor of closer cooperation with Russia.

The tensions escalated sharply over the past two weeks after Yanukovych had declared that the coalition would soon recruit opposition lawmakers and will be able to control 300 deputies in 450-seat Parliament.

Such majority would allow the coalition, which currently controls 250 seats, to override vetoes from the president, to change the country??™s foreign policy course and to unilaterally change the constitution, up to eliminating the post of the president.

The government held an emergency meeting early Tuesday and called on the president to cancel the decree.

???There is a chance for the president to make several steps that would prevent destabilization in the country,??? Yanukovych said at the meeting. ???Firstly, it??™s not to publish the decree.???

???Anything else would lead to escalation of the situation,??? Yanukovych said. ???I told the president that it will be a heavy burden on the head of state.???

Meanwhile, the decree will be officially published by the presidential official newspaper on Tuesday morning, according to Viacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of pro-Yushchenko??™s Our Ukraine. (tl/ez)