KIEV, Jan. 23 ??“ Holos Ukrayiny, Parliament??™s official newspaper, will not publish on Wednesday the controversial law that has been reducing powers of President Viktor Yushchenko, the newspaper??™s editor reported on Tuesday.

This means the law will not come into effect Wednesday as some government officials have been hoping for, perhaps giving political figures in Ukraine the last chance to prevent the constitutional crisis.

Yushchenko may now hold consultations with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz over the issue, Mykhaylo Chechetov, a senior member of Yanukovych??™s Regions Party, said.

???I think there will be consultations between the president, the prime minister and the speaker of Parliament,??? Chechetov said in an interview with the Channel 5 television.

This position was echoed by Yanukovych, who had earlier Tuesday suggested that a compromise was possible over the issue. But he refused to disclose more details.

???We are always ready to listen to each other, we are always ready to listen to the president,??? Yanukovych said. ???If his proposals are accepted, of course, we will politically support them.???

Yanukovych may suggest to Yushchenko to sign the law in exchange for approving some presidential amendments later, a source at the Regions Party said.

Yushchenko vetoed the law last week citing text differences compared with the original draft suggesting that lawmakers have failed to overcome the presidential veto on the law.

The law allows the pro-government coalition to nominate and to appoint foreign and defense ministers if the president fails to make the nominations within 15 days after the jobs become vacant.

This would effectively allow the pro-Russian coalition to replace pro-Western Foreign Minister Boris Tarasiuk, an ally of Yushchenko that has been pushing hard for Ukraine??™s accretion to NATO.

Russia, which views NATO as a military threat, has earlier told Ukraine that joining the alliance would mean severance of all economic ties with the two countries.

Meanwhile, analysts said that the compromise will be hard to reach as Yanukovych and Moroz have already failed upon their promises of cooperation with the president earlier this month.

Yanukovych and Moroz promised Yushchenko to work jointly on the law on the Cabinet of Ministers, but two days later had joined forces with opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to approve the law reducing powers of Yushchenko.

???Their promises are worth nothing,??? Pavlo Zhebrivskiy, a senior member of Our Ukraine, Yushchenko??™s party, said. (tl/ez)