KIEV, Sept 3: Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko threatened on Wednesday to call a snap parliamentary poll, saying the coalition government had collapsed.

Yushchenko accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of joining forces with rival factions after months of bickering between them and their parties which constitute the coalition.

Tymoshenko said it was Yushchenko who had wrecked the coalition and her party said it was not looking for new partners.

Yushchenko said in a televised statement that if a new governing coalition could not be formed, “I will use my right to dismiss parliament and announce early elections.”

That would be the third parliamentary election in as many years since the 2004 “Orange Revolution”, which swept Yushchenko to power on a ticket of greater Western integration including joining Nato and the European Union.

His office accused Tymoshenko of betraying Ukraine during the Georgian conflict by not backing Tbilisi, as Yushchenko did, when Russian troops marched into South Ossetia last month.

Politicians at home and abroad warned Ukraine could be the Kremlin's next target. Analysts have said, although a Russian invasion is extremely unlikely, a divided political elite in Ukraine would spell trouble for relations with Moscow.

Yushchenko has accused Tymoshenko of joining forces with the Regions Party of former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich -- who lost against Yushchenko in the 2004 presidential election which had to be rerun after it was deemed fraudulent.

Yushchenko's accusation came after members from Tymoshenko's bloc and the Regions party voted together on late on Tuesday to reduce the powers of the president. The president has to sign the new laws for them to come to force.

All three politicians are expected to run in a presidential election due in 16 months. Analysts see the constant rowing between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, which has brought reforms to a standstill, as political manoeuvring ahead of the poll.

“It is obvious that he (Yushchenko) is following his own aims, that he is defending his future prospects, that he still hopes for success at the presidential elections,” independent analyst Olexander Dergachyov said.

Polls have shown that Tymoshenko would win a presidential election, with Yushchenko coming last. In a parliamentary election, she would increase her seats, while Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party would lose some.

“The president and his office have used every means to ruin the coalition,” Tymoshenko told a cabinet meeting. “It is a pity that the president is behaving irresponsibly. The coalition split yesterday, on his own decision.”

Later, her party said Yushchenko's actions were directly linked to his presidential aspirations and called on the president's party and a third party also in the coalition not to “fall for provocation”.

Under the constitution, the two parties have 10 days to sort out their differences and revive the coalition. If they cannot do so, parliament has 30 days to form a new coalition. After that, the president can call a new parliamentary election.

Mustering a majority of 331 seats out of 450, her bloc and the Regions party passed a law which enables the government to ignore the president's decrees if it interrupts its work.

Yushchenko's decrees over the past nine months has halted the privatisation of several large state firms. The government had been relying on revenues from the sell-offs for its budget.

The fighting between the two has prevented the government from adopting a unified approach to inflation -- which soared to over 30 per cent in May and is still high at 26 per cent, and divided the central bank as it revalued the currency.—Reuters