Ukraine meeting fails to resolve crisis

Key players in Ukraine’s political crisis failed to resolve the tensions in nearly three hours of talks in Kiev tonight, but President Leonid Kuchma said progress was made.

Kuchma, who met the two men who claim to have won the election to succeed him, and top European envoys, said a multilateral working group had been established to find a way out of the crisis that has brought hundreds of thousands of supporters of losing candidate Viktor Yushchenko into the streets.

Kuchma said all sides “stand against any use of force that would lead to bloodshed” and said the working group would begin its consultations immediately.

He did not give details of what was discussed, but a source close to the talks said the prospect of conducting a rerun of Sunday’s allegedly fraudulent election was one of the key issues on the table.

The talks included Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was declared the winner of the election, but who cannot be inaugurated pending the hearing of an appeal to the Supreme Court filed by the Yushchenko camp.

The appeal is to be heard on Monday, ahead of a continuation of the protests for several days and a likely rise in numbers over the weekend.

Earlier today, a top Yushchenko aide said holding another election was an acceptable strategy for getting out of the crisis.