KIEV, March 12 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the opposition Regions Party have agreed on 90% of their proposed constitutional amendments, but have stumbled on how to elect the next president, a senior Regions official said Thursday.

The groups agreed to turn Ukraine into a parliamentary republic giving most of political power to the prime minister, but are yet to agree on whether to elect the president in Parliament or by a popular vote.

“Those constitutional amendments that the country needs are ready by more than 90%,” Andriy Kliuyev, a senior member of the Regions Party, told Interfax-Ukraine.

“There is a number of issues that still must be agreed,” he said. “These are the issues of presidential election, the system of parliamentary election. There are about ten issues that must be agreed.”

The comment de-facto confirms that Tymoshenko and the Regions Party have been making advanced discussions on the constitutional amendments without involving President Viktor Yushchenko in the process.

The Tymoshenko Bloc and the Regions Party combined control more than 300 seats in the 450-seat Parliament that is enough to override the president and to approve the amendments.

Tymoshenko last year declined to comment on whether her group has been holding the discussions with the Regions Party.

Meanwhile, people familiar with the situation said that Tymoshenko has recently resumed talks with the Regions Party perhaps seeking to create a grand coalition that would split the power between the two.

“Personally, I am an advocate of the coalition with the Tymoshenko Bloc,” Kliuyev said. “I am in favor of completing the political reform. It can be completed only if you have 300 votes in Parliament.”

“Only two groups in Parliament can garner so many votes. These are the Regions Party and the Tymoshenko Bloc,” he said.

The discussions come as severe economic crisis have been reducing popular support for both, Tymoshenko and Yanukovych, while on the other hand had been boosting support for pro-Western politician Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former speaker of Parliament.

A recent opinion poll listed Yatseniuk, 34, as the third most popular politician in Ukraine after Yanukovych and Tymoshenko. But the poll also showed that Yatseniuk would defeat both, either Yanukovych or Tymoshenko, in the runoff in the case of the popular vote.

The next presidential election is due in January 2010, but Parliament is yet to approve a date for the vote. (tl/ez)