KIEV, Dec. 15 – President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party on Monday failed to secure enough votes from its lawmakers to create a coalition with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s group, suggesting the differences between the two have been widening.

Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense, which controls 72 seats in the 450-seat Parliament, needs to secure support of at least 37 lawmakers, a simply majority, to be able to approve the coalition.

However, at the meeting on Monday only 36 lawmakers apparently agreed to back the coalition, while 11 refused with the rest being absent and abstaining, according to a person familiar with the situation.