Ukraine PM Accuses President Of "Madness"

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Sunday accused President Viktor Yushchenko of "madness," Interfax news agency reported, sharpening a bitter war of words between the former allies.

PM Yulia Tymoshenko 'ready for a fight'.
Yushchenko, who earlier this month pulled his party from Tymoshenko's governing coalition, Saturday accused the prime minister of "treason" for putting her own interests ahead those of the state.

Asked about the accusation, Tymoshenko said: "I consider this is already madness...it is even embarrassing to comment," Interfax reported.

She then accused Yushchenko of "total inadequacy," the news agency said.

Tymoshenko also denied Yushchenko's accusation that her party, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, was failing to enter talks to reestablish their alliance, dubbed the "democratic coalition" by the country's media.

"It seems to me that the person who is now the country's president is simply looking for the reasons not to return to the democratic coalition", she said.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have had a love-hate relationship since they joined forces to overturn a rigged election in the 2004 Orange Revolution. Their latest split was sparked by differences over how Ukraine should react to Russia's war with Georgia.

Yushchenko then pulled his Our Ukraine party from the ruling coalition after Tymoshenko's party joined forces with the pro-Russian opposition to pass legislation limiting the president's power

Source: AFP