KIEV, Aug. 3 - Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the Regions Party, on Friday is expected to be approved as Ukraine??™s new prime minister by a vote in Parliament following the support from President Viktor Yushchenko.

The vote will end a serious political crisis in Ukraine that had been plaguing the country for the past four months following the inconclusive general election on March 26.

Yushchenko supported Yanukovych, his bitter rival at the presidential election in November 2004, seeking to end confrontation between political camps after the Regions Party, a moderately pro-Russian group, had agreed to back the pro-Western policy.

As the first test of such policy turnaround, Parliament is expected Friday to allow deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine for a NATO-led military exercise.

The party has so far been vehemently opposing such exercises that had already forced NATO to reschedule some of them that had been earlier planned jointly with Ukraine.

Parliament will also vote to appoint and swear in judges to the Constitutional Court, a move that would unblock the operation of the court for the first time over the past nine months.

This would help to eliminate the threat of any constitutional crisis in Ukraine by providing an authority that would resolve such disputes.

Yushchenko, who has been long seeking to restart the operation of the Constitutional Court, said he would attend the session in Parliament on Friday.