KIEV, Dec. 13 - President Viktor Yushchenko has said he is confident that Parliament will appoint its leadership and form a new government by the end of this year.

"I am confident that the country will start 2008 with the leadership of a newly elected parliament, government, and distributed committees of the [Verkhovna Rada]," Yushchenko said in an interview Thursday with the Fifth Channel TV, Interfax-Ukraine reported.