KIEV, Sept. 16 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Tuesday her government will continue to work for a “long time” despite the official collapse of the coalition that had been supporting the government since December 2007.

Tymoshenko made the comments hours after the coalition had officially seized to exist, triggering a 30-day countdown for the prime minister to either form the new coalition or face early elections.

“Not very nice political events have taken place today,” Tymoshenko said while presenting the draft 2009 budget. “But I want to assure you all that the government will keep working for a long time, will work successfully.”

Tymoshenko compared the collapse of her coalition with Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense, President Viktor Yushchenko’s group, to “a storm in a glass.”

The comments come after Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense, which still controls a half of seats in the Cabinet, urged Tymoshenko and the whole Cabinet to step down.

“We will wait for the prime minister to implement a clause in the coalition agreement, according to which the collapse of the coalition triggers resignation of the prime minister and the speaker of Parliament,” Roman Zvarych, a member of Our Ukraine, said.

A source in the Tymoshenko camp said Monday that Tymoshenko’s attempts to forge a coalition with the Regions Party, the largest opposition group, have been facing difficulties as the party had refused to back an earlier agreed plan to curtail presidential powers.

The refusal derailed a tentative power sharing deal that had been apparently reached between Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych, a former prime minister and the leader of the Regions Party.

The deal apparently called for immediately appointing Yanukovych to the post of the speaker of Parliament, while Tymoshenko would keep the post of the prime minister. In 2010, Yanukovych would get elected to the presidency, while Tymoshenko would keep running the government, according to the deal.

But opposition to the deal within powerful members of the Regions Party emerged over the past week, including the new demand to appoint the leader of the Regions Party to the post of the prime minister.

“It never happens that a bigger group joins a smaller group, especially if the smaller group struggles to stay in power,” Serhiy Liovochkin, a senior member of the Regions Party, said. “It would be logical for the leader of the Regions Party to become the prime minister.”

The Regions Party controls 175 seats and the Tymoshenko group controls 156 seats in the 450-seat Parliament.

Liovochkin also confirmed there was no unity between Tymoshenko and the Regions Party over future powers of the president, suggesting that Tymoshenko’s attempts to approve amendments to the constitution would probably fail.

“Any constitutional reform must be the product of consensus at the level of the society as well as at the level of the political elite,” Liovochkin said. “It’s obvious there is a political crisis and instability today and the process of improving the constitution cannot be effective.”

“So, the success of the constitutional reform looks very improbable until after the next election,” Liovochkin said. (tl/ez)