KIEV, Feb. 22 ??“ Parliament, led by the pro-Russian government coalition, on Thursday rejected President Viktor Yushchenko??™s choice for the foreign minister in an apparent bid to reverse the country??™s pro-Western foreign policy.

Volodymyr Ohryzko, a pro-Western diplomat, was nominated by Yushchenko three weeks ago following the resignation of Boris Tarasiuk, an architect of the pro-Western foreign policy.

Also on Thursday Parliament rejected Viktor Korol, a Yushchenko ally, as the SBU security service chief.

???The coalition refuses to go for a compromise with the president,??? Yuriy Kliuchkovskiy, a lawmaker loyal to Yushchenko, said. ???In fact, this is a war.???

Yushchenko said he will stand by the nominations and will again resubmit them to Parliament soon. The constitution doesn??™t limit the president against nominating the candidacies several times.

???I will insist on these nominations,??? Yushchenko said speaking in Simferopol shortly after Ohryzko and Korol had been rejected.

The developments underscore the coalition??™s desperate attempts to stop Ukraine??™s pro-Western foreign policy, including integration into NATO, an alliance seen by Moscow as a military threat.

The standoff between Yushchenko and pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych come amid signs of the escalating constitutional crisis in Ukraine.

The crisis has been looming large following controversial amendments to the constitution that has come into force on Jan. 1, 2006, and has reduced many presidential powers in favor of the prime minister.

But the amendments left many issues unresolved, such as the exact procedure of approval and dismissal of foreign and defense ministers. The dispute may lead to a situation when both, the president and the coalition, may claim the right to appoint their own foreign ministers that would spread chaos and cause turmoil throughout Ukraine.

???The chaos that is taking place after the amendments clearly shows that the country has lost constitutional balance,??? Yushchenko said. ???I am sure these are bad signals.???

At the heard of the problem is Ukraine??™s heavy reliance on Russian natural gas and oil as Moscow has previously indicated that conducting the pro-Western foreign policy would lead to severing economic and trade ties.

Yanukovych??™s Regions Party won the March 2006 election on promises of restoring better relations with Russia, while many of the party??™s sponsors directly rely on cheap Russian natural gas.

Shortly after being approved as the prime minister in August 2006, Yanukovych has persistently sought to slow down Ukraine??™s accession to NATO. He later managed to secure supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine at $130/1,000 cubic meters in 2007, less than a half of market price in Europe. (tl/ez)