Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko claimed Wednesday he was the victim of a "coup" attempt after parliament approved laws trimming presidential powers ahead of a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney.
"A political and constitutional coup d'etat has started in the parliament," Yushchenko said in a televised speech on Wednesday, a day after parliament passed laws that would reduce his powers and make it easier to impeach him.
Members of parliament from the president's Our Ukraine party pulled out of the ruling coalition with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party after her Tymoshenko Bloc and the pro-Moscow opposition approved the laws.
Yushchenko described the vote as a bid to establish a "dictatorship of the prime minister."
Tymoshenko, Yushchenko's partner in the 2004 "Orange Revolution," said the governing coalition had been "destroyed" thanks to the president, adding however that the government would stay in place for now.
The crisis comes ahead of a presidential election due in 2009 or 2010, which is expected to pit Yushchenko against both Tymoshenko and the leader of the pro-Russian Regions Party, Viktor Yanukovich.
In a challenge to the prime minister, Yushchenko threatened to dissolve the parliament and call early elections if a new coalition between the Tymoshenko Bloc and the pro-Moscow opposition was not formed within 30 days.
"De facto, a new parliamentary coalition has been created," Yushchenko said referring to the Tymoshenko Bloc's decision to vote with the Regions Party.
Tymoshenko has previously ruled out the possibility of a coalition between her pro-Western party and the pro-Russian Regions Party, a move that analysts say could severely undermine her political base.
Yushchenko appeared to warn against Moscow's influence, saying: "The Tymoshenko Bloc has accepted union with the Regions Party and the Communists. The basis of this formation is not Ukrainian. I underline not Ukrainian."
The political crisis in Ukraine comes amid worsening relations with Russia over its conflict last month with Georgia, a key US ally in the region like Ukraine and a fellow aspirant to join NATO.
The decision by lawmakers from Yushchenko's party to pull out of the coalition would come into force in 10 days if sustained. It was approved on Wednesday by a majority of 39 out of the party's 72 deputies in the parliament.
Despite sharing his pro-Western political goals including accession to NATO and the European Union, Tymoshenko has often been sharply at odds with the president and there is intense personal rivalry between the two.
The sudden flare-up came a day ahead of a planned visit to Kiev by Cheney, a trip seen as a show of Washington's backing for the pro-Western policy course pursued by Yushchenko, often against strong domestic opposition.
Cheney arrived earlier Wednesday in ex-Soviet Azerbaijan and was due to meet Thursday in Tbilisi with Georgia's US-backed president, Mikheil Saakashvili, whom Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has declared a "political corpse."
In a sign of deepening divisions in Ukraine, the governing coalition on Tuesday also failed to agree a joint declaration on the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Yushchenko recently accused Tymoshenko of "high treason and political corruption" for allegedly siding with Moscow over the conflict with Georgia last month, a charge she has denied.
Tymoshenko abstained from a vote in Ukraine's Security Council last month imposing restrictions on the movements of Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is based in southern Ukraine and was involved in military action against Georgia.
European officials including French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn have warned Ukraine could be the next target of political pressure from Russia in its mounting stand-off with the West.
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