KIEV, April 22 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s group will push hard in early May to create a Parliamentary commission to enact constitutional amendments that would reduce the powers of the president, a group leader said Tuesday.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the first deputy prime minister and Tymoshenko’s closest ally, said the commission will be created despite a warning from Our Ukraine that the move would undermine the coalition.

“There is no other way,” Turchynov said at a press conference. “Following a three-week recess Parliament will start working and will, of course, debate the creation of the commission, and will begin working on the amendments.”

The comments signal the likely timeframe when the pro-Western coalition will experience major difficulties, and may even collapse. Our Ukraine, President Viktor Yushchenko’s group, which opposes the amendments, indicated on Monday the creation of the commission will undermine the coalition.

Meanwhile, Turchynov’s comments go in line with those recently made by Adam Martyniuk, a senior member of the Communist Party, a heavily pro-Russian group, which also backs the amendments. Martyniuk said Parliament may hold an emergency session, a key element of a plan for quick approval of the amendments, before May 13.

The Tymoshenko group has been quietly talking to opposition Regions Party and the Communist Party seeking their support for the amendments that would shift much of powers from the president to the governing coalition.

Tymoshenko insisted the amendments would be able to prevent frequent clashes between the president and the government.

Yushchenko supporters believe the creation of the commission and the vote for the amendments would deal a fatal blow towards the pro-Western coalition, which could trigger a new general election.

But, even more importantly, the drastic change of the constitution by providing all powers to Parliament, a branch of power that has paralyzed for most of 2007 and 2008 due to internal political infighting, may cost dearly to the country.

“Today it is the presdietn who is the guarantor of the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Roman Zvarych, a member of Our Ukraine, said in comments televised by ICTV.

“Any intrusion into the sphere of the authority of the president may lead to collapse of power in Ukraine, and, perhaps, even to question the territorial integrity of our country,” Zvarych said. (nr/ez)