BRUSSELS, Dec 5 (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana does not plan to travel to Kiev Monday as no talks among international mediators are expected there, contrary to an earlier announcement, Solana's spokeswoman said Sunday.
She said the European Union (EU) considers it "more appropriate" to let negotiations continue in Kiev, where the two sides in the political crisis are locked in a fresh standoff over proposed constitutional reforms.
"As far as I can tell after the consultations that representatives of Solana have had in Kiev with the two sides, there is going to be no roundtable tomorrow," Cristina Gallach told AFP.
"In principle there is no trip planned, although of course the situation is subject to changes," she added.
On Saturday Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called European mediators back to Kiev for a third round of talks, saying that Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and a Russian envoy had agreed to attend Monday.
Solana has travelled to Kiev twice in the past two weeks to help mediate on the crisis.
But the EU official's spokeswoman said the assessment was that outsiders could not immediately help resolve the situation.
"It seems more appropriate at this moment to let the (Ukrainian) parliament work on the fulfilment of the condition to have the elections," she said, adding that intensive telephone conversations had been continuing.
"There was an expectation of a need for mediation. But the conclusion (after phone talks) is that ... it's much better to try to continue the work in the parliament and through consultations," she added.
The comments came as Ukraine's pro-West opposition insisted it would not accept reforms to strip much of the presidency's powers ahead of a rerun presidential election that its leader Viktor Yushchenko hopes he will win.
With the contested November 21 presidential vote invalidated by the supreme court because of massive vote-rigging and a new date set for December 26, Yushchenko is locked in a fresh standoff with outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.
Kuchma, who keeps close ties to Russia, had pushed for the change amid his fears that the opposition could win the presidency in this former Soviet republic.
12/05/2004 16:06 GMT - AFP