KIEV, April 26 - President Viktor Yushchenko in a surprising move on Thursday re-installed Svyatoslav Piskun as the Prosecutor General apparently seeking to force implementation of his decree dismissing Parliament and calling for new election.

The appointment shows Yushchenko has been trying to get control over the key law enforcement agency as many officials have been sabotaging the decree by refusing to finance and to organize the new election.

Piskun said he will make sure that Yushchenko??™s decree is implemented.

???As a lawyer I clearly understand that presidential decrees must be implemented,??? Piskun told Channel 5 television late Thursday. ???We have to make sure that the decree is implemented.???

Oleksandr Medvedko, who led the Prosecutor??™s General Office until Thursday, is closely allied with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Yushchenko??™s rival. Medvedko was on a sick day leave since last week and he had refused to enforce the implementation of Yushchenko??™s decree.

At least four members of the Central Election Commission have been on a sick day leave since the start of the political crisis in early April leading to the lack of quorum at the commission. This has blocked the commission from getting ready for the new election.

But following the appointment of Piskun, the sick members of the commission have quickly ???recovered,??? a sign that the commission may finally start preparing for the new election, Mykola Onishchuk, a lawmaker loyal to Yushchenko, said.

Asked whether the Prosecutor General??™s Office will now open investigation against Yanukovych, Piskun said: ???I don??™t rule out anything that is related to the law. I will work within the framework of the law and I don??™t care of the names of those involved.???

Yushchenko??™s move to re-install Piskun is surprising as both have been waging a long legal battle ever since Piskun had been dismissed from the post of the prosecutor general in October 2005.

Piskun was elected to Parliament in March 2006 on the ticket of the Regions Party, Yanukovych??™s group. But Piskun had never clearly allied himself with Yanukovych and maintained political independence.

Yushchenko used a legal trick to re-install Piskun. After the legal battle was thought to be over, a local court in Kiev had suddenly ruled on Thursday that Piskun must be re-installed, and the presidential team had quickly accepted the ruling. This shows that the Yushchenko team and Piskun have coordinated their actions suggesting there has been a secret deal between the two.

The move allowed Yushchenko to effectively bypass a complicated procedure of appointing the new prosecutor general. Usually the president would nominate a candidate and wait for the approval of Parliament, which would never happen due the on-going political stand-off.

The development caught the Yanukovych team by surprise as the Regions party had tried to block Piskun from taking over the Prosecutor General??™s Office. Yanukovych said Thursday he wanted to meet Piskun, but there was no information on whether the two had met.

The move to re-install Piskun comes a day after Yushchenko has issued the new decree to dismiss Parliament and to postpone the new election until June 24. The original decree that had called for the election on May 27 was cancelled after the sabotage by the Central Election Commission and government officials. (tl/ez)