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The leader of the Communist Party, Petro Symonenko, has urged Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn to hold a parliament meeting on January 8 with the government's participation and discuss the gas crisis and the "political crisis" of Viktor Yuschenko's presidency, the CPU's press service has reported on Tuesday.

"Representing the Communist Party and the communists faction in the parliament, I officially address MPs and the speaker and call for an emergency sitting with the government's participation to discuss the issues of gas crisis and the political course of president Yuschenko," Symonenko said.

The communists' leader also urged the president "to come to the parliament and explain his order to stop negotiating with Russia and attempting to restore a neighborly relationship between our countries."

Symonenko also urged MPs and the government to form a special parliamentary commission on Ukraine-Russia relations and to provide it with the respective authority to regulate over crisis issues concerning the Russian Federation in the economic and energy sectors.