Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich urged President Viktor Yushchenko to find solutions to the current political deadlock through negotiation during a meeting on Wednesday, saying the government is ready to make concessions. Yanukovich said that depending on the president's decision, a chance of solving the current standoff still exists, according to reports by Interfax-Ukraine News Agency. He added that the president must revoke his decree to dissolve parliament, and if he takes that move the government will make concessions.

Ukraine's parliament and government have vowed to defy the president's order to dissolve the legislature and hold elections on May 27.

The decree was announced on Monday after a months-long power struggle following the March 2006 parliamentary elections that brought Yanukovych to power at the head of a leftist coalition.

Yanukovich also proposed that reconciliation plans be drawn up between the two sides, including revoking the president's order and the resolution passed by the parliament on Monday to boycott the decree. Meanwhile, some 12,000 demonstrators, many waving the blue flags of Yanukovich's Regions party, held demonstrations outside the parliament protesting Yushchenko's decree.

Lawmakers from Yanukovich's coalition in parliament have appealed for a ruling by the constitutional court on the legitimacy of the president's order, the Interfax news agency reported.

But pressure from the two sides has prompted the Constitutional Court's chief judge to tender his resignation, which was not accepted by the other judges.

As the power struggle in Ukraine continued, the European Union, Russia and the United States also voiced their concern, calling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.