KIEV, Oct. 4 – President Viktor Yushchenko set a deadline of Tuesday, Oct. 7, for political groups to form a new coalition, saying that otherwise he will dismiss Parliament and call early elections.

Yushchenko said he already scheduled consultations with the groups on Tuesday, a step he must take according to the constitution before actually signing the dismissal decree.

“I want those [tentative] political agreements that exist today to be completed within the next several days. Otherwise I will dismiss Parliament,” Yushchenko said while visiting the Khmelnytsk region on Saturday.

“That’s why I have scheduled on Oct. 7 the consultations, the formal move after which the president de-jure acquires the right to dismiss Parliament,” he said.

The announcement dramatically increases pressure on Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to accept demands from Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense, Yushchenko’s group, needed to form the coalition.

Tymoshenko is under pressure to form the coalition as the early election would most likely lead to her losing the post of the prime minister, a position she has been seeking to keep at least until presidential election due in early 2010.

The groups must form the coalition after the previous coalition collapsed on Sept. 2, immediately after the Tymoshenko group had joined with pro-Russian parties, the Communist Party and the Regions Party, to approve a number of bills undermining powers of the president.

The bills have been secretly prepared to cut the presidential powers, which forced Yushchenko to pull his Our Ukraine party from the coalition, triggering a 30-day countdown for the new coalition to emerge or to face the dismissal of Parliament.

People familiar with the situation said that Tymoshenko has tentatively agreed on a power sharing deal with the Regions Party to form a “stabilization” coalition that let her keep the post of the prime minister.

But the Regions Party, the largest group in Parliament, later changed its position and demanded the post of the prime minister, a concession that Tymoshenko was apparently not ready to make.

At the same time, opinion polls showed Tymoshenko has been rapidly losing popular support due to her working closely with the Regions Party, a group she had labeled as ‘bandits’ and ‘criminals.’

These pressures among others forced Tymoshenko to rapidly change the course towards trying to create the coalition with Our Ukraine, forcing the prime minister to switch positions completely over the past 30 days.

On Thursday, Tymoshenko lawmakers, jointly with Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense, voted to cancel all controversial bills that had caused the collapse of the coalition in the first place.

But Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense also demanded to approve resolution denouncing Russia for disproportionate use of military power and incursion into Georgia, a Ukrainian ally.

Tymoshenko has so far been refusing to accept this demand, citing concerns that Russia would steeply increase prices of natural gas in 2009 to punish Ukraine.

Tymoshenko visited Moscow on Thursday for lengthy one-on-one meetings with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, but also with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Russia apparently decided to postpone the announcement of the gas prices for 2009 until later.

Yushchenko, apparently still angry about Tymoshenko’s alliance with the pro-Russian parties in September, said he was skeptical about her commitment towards the new coalition with Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense. But added he will give them a chance.

“I give those who did have extramarital romances and to those who didn’t a chance by Oct. 7 to communicate as responsible political people and to suggest the society and the state an exit from this trap,” Yushchenko said.

“Obviously, one has to seek reconciliation around national priorities for the sake of which the coalition is formed instead of performing a Mexican soap-opera and have early election every 12 months,” Yushchenko said. (tl/ez)