???My visit to Parliament has been scheduled,??? Yushchenko said in a televised interview late Thursday. ???We agreed that judges to the Constitutional Court will be appointed, there will be a vote to allow foreign troops for the exercise and approval of the prime minister.???

In a deal with the Regions Party, Yushchenko also secured his right to appoint Internal Affairs Minister, a post that according to the constitution has to be decided by the coalition.

The Internal Affairs Ministry is an important law enforcement agency and Yushchenko fears its control by a political party, rather then by the president, could be used to settle political accounts with rivals.

???The candidature for the post of the Internal Affairs Minister will be suggested by the president,??? Yushchenko said. This brings to three the number of ministers in the new government that will be nominated by the president, including the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Defense Minister.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and the leader of the largest pro-Western party in Parliament, will stay in opposition.

???It will be interesting to see how many Our Ukraine lawmakers remain loyal now to Yushchenko, or whether Tymoshenko can benefit from defections to take her to the 150-seat threshold required to take parliament's quorum away and force early elections,??? Timothy Ash, an analyst with Bear Stearns International in London, said.

???We doubt that she will get the required 20-odd seats she needs, and in fact her party could suffer defections,??? Ash said. (tl/ez)