KIEV, Sept. 19 ??“ Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz on Tuesday called for the widening of Ukraine??™s budget deficit to 3% of GDP, from about 2.6%, in order to increase social spending next year.

Moroz is the leader of the Socialist Party, a small leftist group on which the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has become increasingly dependent due to an ongoing foreign policy dispute with Our Ukraine, the party headed by President Viktor Yushchenko.