KIEV, Dec. 16 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday lost control over his Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense group in Parliament after a majority of its lawmakers signed an agreement creating a coalition with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

At least 37 Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense group lawmakers, a simple majority, signed the coalition agreement, which is believed to be opposed by Yushchenko. The group controls 72 seats in the 450-seat Parliament.

The development is a setback for Yushchenko, and also shows the level of penetration by Tymoshenko into the ranks of Yushchenko’s own party, reducing the ability of the president to influence the government.

Viacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense group in Parliament and a Yushchenko loyalist, said he will step down as the group leader. Roman Zvarych, a deputy group leader, will also step down.

“I will not be the leader that represents a group minority,” Kyrylenko said at a press conference. “A politician that pursues European principles in a situation like that must step down and not get involved in a long power struggle.”

The support from majority of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense was needed for Tymoshenko to formally create the coalition, which also involves her own party and the group led by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn.

The formal creation of the coalition means that Yushchenko will not be able to dismiss Parliament and call early election, effectively allowing Tymoshenko to stay as the prime minister until the next presidential election in early 2010.

Kyrylenko said the remaining 35 lawmakers within Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense did not sign the coalition agreement due to lack of trust in Tymoshenko’s ability to stick to commitments.

“Any agreement with Tymoshenko is not worth even a paper on which it is signed,” Kyrylenko said. “That’s because it will no be implemented and this will be the main problem.”

Meanwhile, Yushchenko is thought to retain control over 35 lawmakers within Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense suggesting that Tymoshenko will still not be able to command at least 226 votes in the coalition needed to approve legislation.

That lack of support will probably force Tymoshenko to rely on the Communist Party, a vehemently pro-Russian group that has been joining forces with Tymoshenko repeatedly over the past six months.

The Communist Party helped Tymoshenko to survive a no-confidence vote in July. The party also helped Tymoshenko in September to approve legislation cutting powers of the president and also helped Tymoshenko in December to cement her power by electing Lytvyn to the post of the speaker.

“The dominating force in the [Tymoshenko-led] coalition is the Communist Party,” Kyrylenko said.

Meanwhile, new disagreements between Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense and the Tymoshenko Bloc emerged Tuesday after the bloc had posted apparently controversial text of the coalition agreement on its website.

Vladyslav Kaskiv, an Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense lawmaker who signed the agreement, said the Tymoshenko group had apparently edited the text of the agreement after he had signed it.

“The variant posted by the Tymoshenko group has a number of differences compared with the variant that had been signed by Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense,” Kaskiv told Ukrayinska Pravda.

In particular, Tymoshenko’s text of the coalition agreement does not make a clear reference towards Ukraine’s accession to NATO and also does not mention the idea that the National Bank of Ukraine, the central bank, must be an independent institution. (tl/ez)