BERLIN, May 16 (UPI) - Ukraine needs early election as soon as possible and a culture of political consensus to make real progress, according to a group of experts from the United States and Europe.

The ongoing political crisis is rooted in conflicts between the country's three key players: President Viktor Yushchenko, the man who in 2004 overcame dioxin poisoning to turn into the hero of the peaceful democratic Orange Revolution; Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whose party dominates the Rada, the country's one-chamber Parliament; and Yulia Tymoshenko, the attractive braided former prime minister who ever since a fallout with Yushchenko (once her closest ally) has been caught between two stools.