Feeding growing speculation that president sees Yushchenko as potential threat, Kuchma calls for dialogue between government and Rada

inet's survival increasingly slim, President Leonid Kuchma refused to intervene Friday to help his embattled prime minister.

Instead, he called for a dialogue between Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and parliament, which on Thursday deemed the government’s work unsatisfactory and scheduled a no-confidence vote by April 26.

“Anything I might say today to support this or the other side may be seen as pressure or excessive support,” Kuchma said during a visit to the northeastern industrial town of Kharkiv.

“Today a dialogue is needed ... and both sides should understand it,” Kuchma added in comments carried by the Interfax news agency.

Kuchma's stance only served to strengthen speculation that he saw the popular Yushchenko as a potential threat. Polls have indicated that Yushchenko, the reformist ex-central banker named to his current post in late 1999, is the country's most trusted politician.

Yushchenko and his government are credited with accelerating previously sluggish economic reforms, paying a significant portion of back wages and pensions and achieving the first signs of economic growth since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.

But Yushchenko also has numerous foes in the Communist-dominated parliament.

The Communists, who staunchly oppose Yushchenko's reforms, have been joined by once-supportive centrists and others angry with the premier for dismissing their notion of a compliant “coalition government.”

Yushchenko says he would not agree to lead such a Cabinet but has offered parliament the chance to name candidates to some government posts.

Kuchma, referring to the overwhelming parliamentary vote Thursday of 283-65, said he was “amazed no less than many of the lawmakers.”

“There is no smoke without a fire,” he said.

Yushchenko's position is complicated by the wide support he has earned among anti-Kuchma opposition groups who accuse the president of involvement in the slaying of a critical journalist and seek his ouster.

Though Yushchenko has maintained neutrality in the conflict, many in the opposition view him as a possible presidential candidate, something that could make Kuchma see him as a rival.

Kuchma declined to say whether he had another person in mind to replace Yushchenko if the no-confidence vote goes through. The tax chief, Mykola Azarov, and Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko have been rumored to be among the candidates.

 Yushchenko, meanwhile, was undergoing treatment at the Neurosurgery Institute in Kyiv for a chronic back problem, said government spokeswoman Natalia Zarudna. She said the premier could only move with the help of pain-killers and it was not clear when he would return to work.