Ukraine PM's US visit to go ahead despite ruffle

KIEV, Nov 29 (Reuters) Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich's visit to Washington next week is to go ahead after officials today removed an impediment rooted in a new row pitting him against the ex-Soviet state's pro-Western president.

Yanukovich, seen as being more friendly to Moscow, was named prime minister in August by President Viktor Yushchenko and the two have since been locked in a battle for influence and power.

He enraged the president by saying low popular support for NATO ruled out fast-track Ukrainian membership and demands the dismissal of Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, a NATO advocate and one of the few cabinet members chosen by the president.

Yanukovich, addressing a cabinet meeting, read out a letter from Ukraine's Foreign Ministry saying the December 3-7 visit had been postponed because his government had failed to send the president a directive setting down guidelines for the talks.

''It saddens me greatly to inform you of this. I have already said that no ministry can run the cabinet,'' he told ministers.

And, turning to Tarasyuk, he added: ''It was your duty to inform me about this in good time.'' The directive, he said, had been agreed and would be sent to the president's secretariat.

Tarasyuk replied that foreign policy remained the prerogative of the president.

A senior adviser to Yushchenko later said all disagreements on the visit had been eliminated.

''The directives have been agreed and will now be confirmed by the president,'' Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters. ''The issue has been resolved.'' Yushchenko defeated Yanukovich in a 2004 presidential election in the aftermath of Ukraine's ''Orange Revolution'' but he made a comeback when his Regions Party took first place in a parliamentary election last March.

Yushchenko reluctantly appointed him head of government after his own ''orange'' allies proved unable in four months of talks to form a liberal government of their own.

Disputes between the two men have been magnified by constitutional amendments, approved at the height of the 2004 protests, under which several presidential powers were transferred to the prime minister and parliament.

Reuters PDM VV1603