Yushchenko Stalls, Our Ukraine Talks.

President Yushchenko plans to take the full 15 days allowed by the constitution to decide whether he will forward Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich’s nomination as prime minister for a vote in parliament, the president’s spokeswoman said after yesterday’s Yushchenko-Yanukovich meeting. She added that Yanukovich hadn’t submitted his resume and other documents needed to make his nomination official until today. However, Yanukovich said he “saw in Yushchenko’s eyes” the desire to strike a deal. Meanwhile Our Ukraine’s MP faction leader, Roman Bezsmertny, said the party was talking with the Regions party about taking part in government, but he said Our Ukraine would not join the coalition unless the Communists left. Media reports said Our Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko was being offered first deputy prime minister, and one Regions MP said Yuri Yekhanurov, Anatoly Kinakh and Arseny Yatsenyk were invited to join the cabinet. Tom Warner: It looks like Poroshenko and his allies are no longer demanding that the Socialists be expelled from the coalition, which makes a deal much more likely. However, it won’t be easy for Poroshenko and other Blue-leaning Our Ukraine leaders (Yekhanurov, Kinakh, Matvienko) to convince a majority of the faction to join a Yanukovich-led coalition. Also, Regions are very keen to keep the Communists in their coalition, as Our Ukraine could bring down a Regions-Socialist-Our Ukraine government at any time by quitting. Look for Yushchenko to step up his threat to dissolve parliament next week, in an effort to secure a deal more to his liking.