Ukraine opposition rejects president's talks offer

Ukraine's opposition rejected an offer from president Viktor Yanukovych today to sit down for talks as thousands of protesters reinforced their positions in Kiev.
The talks snub came as demonstrators prepared for another mass rally Sunday to pressure the president to turn away from historical master Moscow toward the EU and Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov called on all parties to find a peaceful solution to Ukraine's deepest political crisis in a decade.
Experts say time is running out for Yanukovych to make a decision on a future direction for his politically volatile nation, which is split between a Ukrainian-speaking, pro-EU west and a Russian-speaking, Moscow-leaning east.

He can either sign a deal with the European Union that would put his ex-Soviet nation on track to eventually joining the bloc, or join a Moscow-led Customs Union, which Russia sees as a future alternative to the EU.
As protests went into a fourth week, the office of the president, who has called on the opposition to renounce "ultimatums", said today he would personally take part in "round table" talks chaired by post-Soviet Ukraine's first president Leonid Kravchuk.
The opposition reiterated today that it would not participate in any talks until Yanukovych dismissed the government and punished riot police for crushing a small protest late last month.

"This is not so much our position as that of people on Maidan," a spokeswoman for world boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko said, referring to Independence Square in Kiev.

The oligarch Akhmetov today urged politicians and the opposition to enter talks.
"We are one country and there is no need to divide it," he said in a statement released by his SKM holding company.
"Right now, in a difficult moment for our country it's very important to have cool heads and a balanced approach," he said.
The embattled 63-year-old president appears to be biding his time, sending a delegation to Brussels yesterday while at the same time preparing for a new meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A top Ukrainian minister said Kiev was renewing preparations for the EU deal.
"Today we're renewing preparations for the signing of an agreement," First Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Arbuzov said after talks with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fuele late yesterday.
Fuele for his part said the EU would help Ukraine implement the association agreement and would help the cash-strapped country obtain an IMF loan.
Putin, for his part, said yesterday that Ukraine was still welcome to join Moscow's Customs Union seen as a counterweight to the EU.