Tymoshenko Elected Prime Minister Ukraine

KIEV, December 18 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's elect Prime Minister Tymoshenko looked confident after she received parliament vote to approve pro-Western coalition leader Yulia Tymoshenko's return as prime minister on Tuesday.

Tymoshenko required minimum of 226 votes in the Supreme Rada of total 450 members, She attained all 156 members of her eponymous bloc in support of her nomination from the coalition of eponymous bloc and all but two of the 70 member pro-presidential Our Ukraine party.

After the latest vote, Tymoshenko said the new government would target corruption as its first priority, particularly in the areas of privatization and energy.

Yatsenyuk's candidacy was put forth by the factions of Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc. The two parties formed a majority coalition in parliament on Nov. 29.

President Viktor Yushchenko's ally in the 2004 mass protests that brought him to power, Tymoshenko was sacked by the president after about eight months in the post in 2005 amid a series of scandals. The two reconciled their differences during coalition talks after early parliamentary elections in September.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was elected as speaker of the new parliament on Tuesday."227 lawmakers voted for Yatseniuk," head of the parliament's Counting Commission Mikola Shershun announced.

The Party of Regions led by the president's longtime rival, acting Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, its allies Communists and ex-speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn's bloc did not take part in the vote.

Yanukovych, who was defeated by Yushchenko in the presidential race but returned as premier in 2006 after a resounding victory in parliamentary polls, announced from the parliamentary rostrum after Tuesday's vote that his party would go into opposition.

He said Tymoshenko's return as premier promised new political upheavals in the ex-Soviet country. "The country is facing new ordeals," Yanukovych said.

The 450-seat Supreme Rada will now approve a new Cabinet and distribute parliamentary committee portfolios, but lawmakers said the issues could be postponed until Wednesday.