Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich increased pressure on Ukraine’s president on Wednesday, boycotting the campaign for a poll ordered by a leader, the Reuters news agency reports.

Pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko this week brought to a head months of confrontation with his premier over Ukraine’s future direction, dissolving the parliament backing him and calling a May 27 election.

At a five-hour meeting on Tuesday, Yushchenko told the Moscow-friendly premier he defeated in 2004 after weeks of “orange” protests that his decree was irreversible. Yanukovich had earlier dismissed it as a “fatal error.”

Under Ukrainian law, the campaign opened on Wednesday. But Yanukovich vowed he would have nothing to do with it until the Constitutional Court ruled on the president’s decree.

“Until the Constitutional Court examines this issue, we will engage in no preparations for any elections,” he told ministers.

“Given that the country is in such a tense situation, we must ensure that state institutions function … and cut short any action, or indeed any talk, of an early election.”

Yanukovich accused the president’s staff of putting pressure on state institutions, including the constitutional court.

The chairman of parliament, Oleskander Moroz, an ally of the prime minister, said the court’s chairman had resigned, but court officials refused to comment.

The prime minister’s allies in parliament have asked the court to rule on the decree’s legality. No ruling can be expected from the court for about a month.

Yushchenko’s victory over Yanukovich in the 2004 election prompted hopes among liberals that Ukraine, a country of about 47 million which was part of the Soviet Union, could move towards the West and join the European Union and NATO.

But the president’s supporters were disillusioned by rows among ministers, his powers were cut by constitutional change and his personal ratings sank to single figures.

Addressing Western ambassadors in Kiev, Yanukovich repeated a call for talks to end the standoff. But he said he was not afraid of going to the polls.

“We should extend a hand to each other. We must look to the future, not return to the past and reopen old wounds,” he said.“

”The question of an early election should be removed from the agenda. People do not want a new election. But we are not afraid of an election. We are certain of victory.“

Central Kiev remained void of any sign of political tension. In Independence Square, focal point of the 2004 protests, several hundred supporters of the prime minister sang patriotic songs and set up a stage in a bid to recreate some of that upheaval.

Yanukovich, humiliated in the 2004 election, made a remarkable comeback in Ukraine’s last parliamentary election, barely a year ago and Yushchenko nominated him to his post when his own ”orange“ allies proved unable to form a government.

The two men have since sniped continuously, with parliament chipping away at the president’s powers and authority.

Yushchenko, disfigured by an attempt to poison him during the 2004 campaign, said he had dissolved parliament to ”preserve the state.“ He has accused Yanukovich of illegally enlisting allies to expand the coalition backing him in parliament.

Opinion polls suggest a new election may not significantly change the make-up of parliament, with the prime minister’s Regions Party in the lead, followed by the bloc of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

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