KIEV, Feb. 23 – The Regions Party, led by President-elect Viktor Yanukovych, on Tuesday used a trick to delay a government no-confidence motion for one week to secure enough time to finish talks over a new coalition.

The Regions Party, which submitted the motion to Parliament earlier this month, on Tuesday suddenly withdrew it to make some “corrections.”

The move destroyed attempts of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to hear the motion on Wednesday, one day before Yanukovych’s inauguration.

Wednesday was the day when the government could survive the motion because talks between the Regions Party and other groups over the new coalition had not been yet completed.

The survival of the motion would automatically give the government 12-month immunity from dismissal in Parliament.

“We have withdrawn the motion to make some corrections,” Hanna Herman, a senior member of the Regions Party, said in an interview with Channel 5. “We have later resubmitted it to Parliament.”

“It will be voted next week, and the government will be dismissed, and the new government will be appointed,” Herman said.

The development show the Regions Party has legally outmaneuvered the Tymoshenko Bloc, dashing Tymoshenko’s hopes of keeping the job of the prime minister to challenge the new president.

Oleksandr Larvynovych, another senior member of the Regions Party, said there is “more than enough votes” in Parliament for the dismissal of the government.

“The fact that the decision will be approved is out of discussion,” Lavrynovych said. “Let them stop hoping for a miracle. There will be no miracle, and there will be no this government in Ukraine.”

There were signs that many in the Tymoshenko Bloc have been starting to accept the fact that Yanukovych will be inaugurated for the presidency.

“It seems to me that we will come to the inaugration. We have a preliminary agreement,” Volodymyr Yavorivskiy, a member of the Tymoshenko Bloc, said.

“A majority must be formed in Parliament. If the Regions Party is capable of forming it, let them do it,” Yavorivskiy said. “Yulia Tymoshenko will resign five minutes later.” (tl/ez)