Prime minister calls early poll 'reckless'

But President Viktor Yushchenko, her estranged ally from the 2004 "Orange Revolution", said he would stick firmly to his plan to stage the Dec. 7 parliamentary poll.

Tymoshenko says the election, called after the collapse of a pro-Western "orange" ruling coalition, is "reckless" given the world financial crisis that has jolted the country. An International Monetary Fund mission was heading to Kiev to assess the financial situation in the ex-Soviet state.

Speaking after talks with European politicians, she said she would try once more to persuade the president to bring his Our Ukraine party back into the "orange" governing team.

"I want to...propose to him (Yushchenko) for the sake of Ukraine to bring his faction into the coalition again," she said. "I am absolutely sure that for the sake of Ukraine we can find the way to unity again. It's just important to get the president to once again bring back this pro-European majority."

Tymoshenko, who also met European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said an early election "cannot bring stability, cannot bring any good for Ukraine".

The European People's Party, a centre-right group in the European parliament, agreed.

"New elections ... will undermine stability. What Ukraine needs today is not new elections but a responsible leadership and stable government," Wilfried Martens, EPP president and a former Belgian prime minister, said in a statement.

"We express our full support for leaders in Ukraine who are doing everything to stabilise the government coalition."

Yushchenko dissolved parliament after accusing Tymoshenko of torpedoing the "orange" team. Court challenges have halted preparations for the vote and Tymoshenko has refused to bow to the president's order for the government to finance the poll.

The president vowed to proceed with the election "whatever gimmicks the prime minister and her team produce".

"As president, I will not be swayed from the process of overseeing this early election," Yushchenko, quoted by the presidential Internet site, said in central Ukraine.

Ukraine has yet to suffer serious blows from the crisis, but analysts are concerned about the hryvnia currency's weakness and the stability of its banking sector. The ex-Soviet state has joined Iceland, Hungary and Serbia in seeking help from the IMF.

Yushchenko has twice appointed Tymoshenko premier, but the two have been constantly in conflict. The Orange Coalition unravelled when the president's Our Ukraine party broke links with Tymoshenko's bloc last month.