KIEV, Oct. 3 – Prime Minister Mykola Azarov is pushing for approval of a bill to cut social spending, but one without some of the controversial clauses that had triggered angry unrest and an attack on Parliament.

Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who spoke with Azarov on Monday, said lawmakers were undecided yet on whether to go ahead with the bill amid fears it may trigger unrest again.

“There is a psychological issue,” Lytvyn said at a press conference. “This can trigger certain doubts and distrust. I don’t want that Parliament, and its speaker, to have finally lost trust.”

The developments come after Azarov and leaders of the two most vocal protester groups signed a memorandum on Friday in which the government has promised not to cut the spending.

The groups, including veterans of the USSR’s 1980s war in Afghanistan war and 1986 Chernobyl clean-up workers, led thousands in protest last month and even tried to stormed Parliament building after an attempt had been made to approve it without public debate.

The protest was the most serious unrest in Ukraine since street marches and protest organized by small business owners last year in protest of planned tax increases.

The protest could prove to be contagious and spread across Ukraine because the original bill is thought to have been affecting more than 10 million people.

The developments underscore a difficult balancing act by the Azarov government, which needs to cut spending to comply with demands from the International Monetary Fund in order to win resumption of $15.2 billion loan.

The memorandum signed with Azarov and protesters on Friday averted escalation of tensions after the government’s original negotiator on the issue, Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tyhypko, had failed to make progress and the talks had collapsed.

The bill, known as No. 9127, calls for scrapping separate legislation outlining social benefits to various groups of people.

The bill was quietly approved in the first reading on September 9, and was supposed to be approved in the final reading on September 20.

The government has been pushing through the bill and seeking the right to decide on the benefits because it alleges that many of current recipients may be receiving the benefits illegally.

But the attempts to approve the bill in the final reading triggered a massive spontaneous protest involving up to 3,000 people, mostly veterans of Soviet war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl clean-up operation workers, in front on Parliament building.

A handful of protesters managed to breakthrough the police cordon to briefly enter the Parliament building, smashing some windows in the process, before retreating after lawmakers had postponed the bill.

The leaders of protest said they will keep an eye on whether the government sticks to the memorandum, and threatened to quickly expand the protest across Ukraine if things go wrong.

“We will strictly monitor the implementation of the memorandum,” Serhiy Chervonopyskiy, the leader of the Afghan war veterans, told Kommersant daily. “Our people are standing by in combat readiness. We will not relax, and will not let them fool us.” (tl/ez)