Ukraine blocks military alliances

In a statement of purpose published in the parliament's official gazette on Tuesday, the Stability and Reforms administration said that new legislation will "enshrine Ukraine's non-aligned status in law."

Such a law would kill one of the key initiatives of President Viktor Yanukovych's predecessor, the staunchly pro-Nato Viktor Yushchenko, who had struggled to gain admission to the US-controlled military bloc since he came to power by the Western-backed Orange Revolution protests of 2004.

The coalition, which includes Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions, the Communist Party and parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn's group, has 235 MPs in the 450-seat assembly.

In addition, the gazette reported that a parliamentary majority had agreed to "form an agenda in bilateral relations with the Russian Federation based on strategic partnership, friendship and good neighbourly relations and mutually proficient trade-economic co-operation."

But a majority of MPs also agreed to "to continue constructive co-operation with Nato on all issues of mutual interest."

Although Mr Yushchenko's Nato ambitions never gained public support, they infuriated Russia, which recently published a military doctrine naming the alliance's eastward expansion as the country's top external threat.

As part of its effort to assert influence over the post-Soviet sphere, Russia has been promoting the Co-operation and Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which is seen as its answer to Nato.

Western analysts have predicted that Mr Yanukovych would be pressured to join the Russia-dominated bloc but Tuesday's statement applied to all military alliances, including the CSTO.

On Tuesday, Ukraine's opposition, which includes Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and the European Party, had a bristling reaction to the governing coalition's decision.

After it signed its own formal agreement to work together against Mr Yanukovych and his supporters, opposition spokesman Hryhoriy Nemyria said: "Essentially, it is additional evidence of the intention to change the strategic course of Ukraine."

Mr Nemyria claimed that the proposed legislation "is incompatible with the aims to modernise Ukraine's economy and society."