KIEV, May 4 ??“ The pro-Russian government coalition on Friday bowed to pressure from President Viktor Yushchenko and accepted his plan for early parliamentary election effectively ending two-month political crisis in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych accepted the plan at a meeting with Yushchenko, but said the new date for the election will be agreed after more talks that will continue on Monday.

"The main objective of our mutual decision is honest, democratic elections,??? Yanukovych told journalists after the meeting with the president. "Political ambitions are not worth risking peace in Ukraine, [and its] economic stability."

The agreement effectively ends the sharp political crisis that has been plaguing Ukraine since after Yushchenko has moved to dissolve Parliament on April 2.

The development is a major victory for the pro-Western president that will effectively increase his authority in Ukraine. It will offset the president??™s earlier institutional and political losses in a nine-month long battle with the pro-Russian government following controversial amendments to the constitution that had been put in effect last year.

Yanukovych and Yushchenko created a joint team that is supposed to prepare a set of bills and other measures that must be implemented in order to make it possible to hold the election. Yushchenko and Yanukovych are expected to meet on Monday to discuss a possible date for the election.

Sources at the presidential office suggest the new date for the election may be set on July 8, postponing the vote that has been scheduled by Yushchenko on June 24.

Yushchenko may temporarily suspend his decree by which he has dissolved Parliament in order to let lawmakers approve a set of bills that would make it possible to hold the early election.

"A number [of bills] must be adopted in Parliament, funds must be allocated, political agreements should be done ??“ the law on cabinet, maybe [laws on] the imperative mandate," Yushchenko said at a press conference late Thursday.

Yanukovych will probably seek to postpone the election until October, the timeframe that would probably best benefit his Regions Party, analysts said.

"In order to save Ukraine, save the future for the people, we're setting up an ad hoc group which will draw up a roadmap for all the political parties, the president, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers,??? Yanukovych said in an a televised address on Friday.

???[Thus, we'll create a legal environment. All the branches of power will start working in the legal environment. The parliament with its full complement will pass all the laws needed to hold the early elections," Yanukovych said.

"And only after that we can take a decision on the early elections," Yanukovych said. (tl/ez)