Russian politicians have repeatedly hinted at U.S. financial involvement in the so-called velvet revolutions in post-Soviet states, Georgia and Ukraine, where popular uprisings brought pro-Western governments to power in 2003 and 2004.
"If a Constitutional Court decides that Ukraine must call early elections and change the constitution, our efforts will be backed [by the U.S.]," Tymoshenko, a former premier and princess of "the orange revolution", was quoted by her political bloc as saying after meeting with Condoleezza Rice in Washington.
Last year, Ukraine saw a shift from the presidential-parliamentary to parliamentary-presidential form of governance, with some presidential powers transferred to parliament, the Supreme Rada.
Since then, the country has been plunged into a political crisis caused by confrontation between the president and prime minister, former rivals in the 2004 presidential race.
Tymoshenko, 47, who backed President Viktor Yushchenko in his ascent to power, said she had explained to her American colleagues that early elections and a new constitution would be the only solution to the current crisis in the former Soviet nation, which seeks integration with NATO and the European Union.
"In such chaos, Ukraine may lose an opportunity to have a democratic leader in our region until 2011," Tymoshenko, a fierce opponent of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, said in a reference to the next parliamentary elections.
Yanukovych, leader of the ruling Party of Regions, has been strongly against early elections. Yet, the Party of Regions faction submitted a draft resolution to parliament Friday on holding early parliamentary and presidential elections in the country September 30.
