Ukraine leaders agree on poll date

President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Parliament Speaker Oleksander Moroz have agreed to hold early parliamentary elections on September 30, according to president's press office.

The announcement early on Sunday morning followed hours of talksaimed at ending months of political standoff in Ukraine.

Yushchenko told reporters the Verkhovna Rada would convene on May 29-30 to adopt some necessary legal changes to organize the snap poll properly and conduct it in a democratic manner as well asa feweconomic bills to facilitate Ukraine’s WTO accession and raise salaries and pensions. Then the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party and Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc will hold conventions to officially relinquish their deputy status to create legal grounds for issuing another decree to disband parliament, he added.

The President described today's compromise as a "truly wonderful result" and said the crisis was now "finished," thanking the country's political forces for their efforts during the negotiations.

Yushchenko added that their agreement demonstrated that Ukraine’s democracy was “mature.” “Ukraine is coming out of this crisis much stronger. The path of negotiations… shows that we are now in the circumstances when democratic valuesbecome dominant,even during the settlement of such a serious political crisis,” he said. “After these quite long – and I cannot say simple – talks we have reached a compromise.”