KIEV, Oct. 19 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Sunday suggested that all five political groups in Parliament join forces in a grand coalition and form a government in a bid to stop the looming financial crisis.

Tymoshenko suggested the groups to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the idea. She said if the plan is rejected, her political group would be working on its own to stop the crisis.

“I suggest to urgently reorganize the Cabinet of Ministers on the basis of such a coalition,” Tymoshenko said in a televised address Sunday night. “I suggest creating a government that would protect Ukraine from the international financial crisis.”

Ukraine’s banking sector and the national currency, the hryvnia, have been experiencing pressure over the past three weeks apparently caused by widening trade deficit, repatriation of capital and run on deposits.

But Tymoshenko has so far been suggesting domestic challenges were not part of the international financial crisis that had been causing collapse of the some of the biggest banks throughout the world.

The developments coincide with the political crisis in Ukraine caused by the collapse of the coalition on Sept. 2 and subsequent failure by political groups to create a new coalition within 30 days.

Yushchenko moved to dismiss Parliament and scheduled the early election on Dec. 7, a plan that Tymoshenko fought desperately in courts over the past seven days.

But on Sunday Tymoshenko said her group will “unilaterally” suspend the political standoff, apparently suggesting the group will not be challenging Yushchenko’s dismissal decree. “Our team will not react to any political aggression,” she said.

In the revealed plan, Tymoshenko did not mention who should take the post of the prime minister in the new government.

People familiar with the matter said Tymoshenko’s refusal to surrender the post of the prime minister to Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the opposition Regions Party, has undermined talks between the two groups over the “stabilization” coalition in September.

Tymoshenko’s plan, however, has received a lukewarm immediate reaction from the Regions Party, the biggest group in Parliament.

Yanukovych, appearing on television on Sunday night, said his party will press for the early election that would probably catapult him to the post of the prime minister.

“We count on this to happen,” Yanukovych told Inter television. “We, as professionals, aim at taking active part in building up the country.”

But Tymoshenko said the groups must “forget” about the early election, and start working together to prevent the financial crisis.

“If the crisis explodes in Ukraine, it would flush away all the people’s income, will rock the country and will flush wash away all presidential candidates and all coalitions put together,” Tymoshenko said. (tl/ez)