Ukraine coalition government collapses

KIEV, Ukraine, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Ukraine's ruling pro-Western government coalition has collapsed, making way for possible early elections, the parliamentary speaker said Tuesday.

The coalition was made up of blocs lead by Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, reported RIA Novosti, the Russian news agency.

"I am officially announcing the collapse of the coalition of democratic forces," Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the country's parliament.

The legislature has 30 days to form a new coalition or face an early election, the third since Yushchenko took office in December 1999.

The pro-presidential Our Ukraine pulled out of the coalition after Tymoshenko's bloc joined Party of Regions, led by Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych, to approve legislation that reduced presidential powers, RIA Novosti said. Yushchenko called the move a "constitutional coup."

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are expected to run in presidential elections due in 2010.