KIEV, Sept. 5 – U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday called on Ukrainian leaders to stay united for the country to be able to counter threats of economic blackmail or intimidation posed by a newly assertive Russia.

Ukraine's "best hope to overcome these threats is to be united -- united domestically first and foremost, and united with other democracies," Cheney said in Kiev after meeting President Viktor Yushchenko.

Cheney’s stop in Kiev comes following his visits to Azerbaijan and Georgia as the U.S. has been assessing the situation in the region following Russia’s action against Georgia last month.

The incursion put the world on the brink of the new cold war, but it had also split Ukraine’s political leaders with Yushchenko quickly condemning Moscow, while Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko adopting a much softer response.

These disagreements over Georgia led to Tymoshenko’s refusal last week to approve Parliamentary resolution condemning Russia, triggering the collapse of the pro-government coalition in Ukraine.

Media reports suggested that Tymoshenko now has been increasingly seeking to create the new coalition the opposition Regions Party, a pro-Russian group, which would further challenge Yushchenko.

Before meeting Yushchenko, Cheney has also met Tymoshenko.

“I believe that Cheney has been trying to persuade them [Yushchenko and Tymoshenko] to renew the [pro-Western] coalition,” Hryhoriy Perepylytsia, director of the Foreign Policy Institute at the Diplomatic Academy under the Foreign Ministry, said.

“It is very important to maintain the democratic coalition in our Parliament. Whatever they say about Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, they symbolize democratic values,” Perepylytsia said in comments posted by Unian newswire. “It is out greatest tragedy that they are involved in a deep conflict over power.”

“Of course, this hurts the interests of our country and its security, but it also hurts the interests of Europe and the U.S.,” he said. “That’s why I believe that this political support was the main goal of the Cheney visit.”

Media reports said Tymoshenko has now been probably considering a power sharing deal with Yanukovych, a pro-Russian leader of the Regions Party, according to which he would define Ukraine’s foreign and defense policies, while Tymoshenko will keep running the government.

Volodymyr Horbach, a political analyst with the Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Institute, a Kiev-based think tank, said the failure to renew the pro-Western coalition may prevent Ukraine from getting the membership action plan, or MAP, at a NATO summit in December.

“The collapse of the coalition will of course have a decisive impact on whether Ukraine can join the MAP,” Horbach said. “It may happen that there will be nobody to implement the MAP before December.” (tl/ez)