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Rada will back Ohryzko candidacy for Ukrainian FM - Yushchenko

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Ukraine's president said Monday he is convinced that the country's parliament will support Volodymyr Ohryzko's candidacy for foreign minister.
KIEV, February 5 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's president said Monday he is convinced that the country's parliament will support Volodymyr Ohryzko's candidacy for foreign minister.

Viktor Yushchenko submitted Ohryzko's candidacy to the Supreme Rada earlier Monday.

A former deputy foreign minister, Ohryzko, 50, has been acting foreign minister since the January 31 resignation of Boris Tarasyuk, a key presidential ally who actively promoted pro-Western policy goals during his time in office.

Ukraine's parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych leads a 246-strong majority coalition, voted in early December to sack Tarasyuk, at the pro-Russian premier's request.

Yushchenko described Ohryzko as "a professional who has worked in the [Foreign Ministry's] structure for a long time and knows it from the inside."

"This candidacy will ensure a succession in the foreign policy domain," he said.

Yushchenko has been steadily losing ground in a power struggle with Yanukovych, whom he defeated two years ago in presidential polls but was forced to appoint as premier last August.

The premier has since consolidated his authority with the sacking by parliament of several president-appointed ministers.

On January 1, 2006, Ukraine shifted from a presidential-parliamentary to a parliamentary-presidential form of governance, after amendments adopted by the Supreme Rada in December 2004 came into force.

As a result, some presidential powers were transferred to the country's parliament and to the Cabinet.

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