The opposition Regions Party, which won the most seats in Ukraine's election, will only join a coalition government if its leader Viktor Yanukovich is named prime minister, a top party official said on Wednesday.
Yanukovich, beaten in the 2004 presidential poll by Viktor Yushchenko after "Orange Revolution" protests, made a comeback in last month's parliamentary race with 32 percent of the vote.
But with parliament empowered to name the premier, that is insufficient to command a majority of seats and the combined vote of liberal parties would easily beat Regions.
With coalition talks under way, Yushchenko says he wants to restore the unity of "orange" liberal groups shattered when he sacked fiery Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister last year. Evhen Kushnaryov, head of the Regions Party's campaign team, said the party, with its sympathy for Moscow and power base in the Russian-speaking industrial east, had the right to head the government. It also was entitled to formulate foreign policy.
"As the winning party, in any coalition we have the right to name a prime minister. The candidate of the Regions Party is Viktor Yanukovich," Kushnaryov told a news conference.
Yanukovich, openly backed by Moscow, initially won the 2004 presidential election, but mass protests and a supreme court ruling overturned the result as fraudulent. Yushchenko won a re-run of the vote.
Despite Yanokovich's success in the March 26 parliamentary poll, Tymoshenko looks better placed to win back her job as prime minister as her party finished the best of all liberal groups - far ahead of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party.
Tension remains high between her and the president - and analysts say the antagonism is the main reason for Our Ukraine's refusal to agree to a quick "orange" coalition deal.
Some say the president's party is consulting Regions to build a separate coalition to cut out Tymoshenko - viewed with suspicion by some Western economists over her attempts to control markets during eight months in office.
Yushchenko dismissed her last September to end infighting. She says she will settle for nothing less than her job back.
Incumbent Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov has predicted long and tortured talks before a coalition can be formed.
Chairing a cabinet meeting devoted to mounting risks of inflation amid a major slowdown, he urged politicians to consider the national interest.
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