Yushchenko rules out withdrawing decree to dissolve parliament

Moscow, Apr 8 (UNI) Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko today said he will not withdraw his decree to dissolve parliament and hold snap polls on May 27.

''Our truth is to live according to the letter and, most importantly, to the spirit of Ukraine's Constitution,'' Mr Yushchenko said in a televised address to the Ukrainian people on the occasion of Easter celebration.

''The President's duty is to halt any encroachment on the state and people. This is the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.

This is the letter and spirit of my oath,'' he declared.

Political crisis in the former Soviet republic intensified after 11 lawmakers defected to the ruling coalition, bringing it closer to constitutional majority in the 450-member parliament.

Mr Yushchenko issued a decree last Monday to dissolve the parliament and hold snap elections on May 27, but lawmakers defied the order, saying they will wait for a Constitutional Court ruling on the matter.

The pro-West President has been trying to integrate Ukraine into NATO and the European Union. He is locked in a power struggle with his pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, since Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions won the March 2006 parliamentary elections.

Mr Yanukovych today expressed the hope that the political crisis in Ukraine would be resolved through democracy and the supremacy of law.

UNI