Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on Sunday that he had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to hold parliamentary elections on Sept. 30, in a bid to resolve the country's political crisis.

"We have come to a decision that represents a compromise," Yushchenko told a joint press briefing with Yanukovych.

"Early elections will be held on Sept. 30," Yushchenko said.

The agreement came after lengthy talks between the two men, which dragged on for hours and continued well after midnight.

Ukraine's political turmoil began in April when Yushchenko signed decrees dissolving parliament and calling early elections. Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych rejected the act as unconstitutional.

The situation was further complicated when the president sacked three judges of the country's constitutional court between April 30 and May 10, as the court started legal proceedings on the legitimacy of the president's decrees.

Earlier on Saturday, 2,050 interior troops were stopped outside the capital on Saturday after the president ordered the troop deployment to Kiev amid the escalating crisis.

The troops started moving toward Kiev early Saturday from different regions of Ukraine. Deputy Interior Minister Mykhailo Korniyenko told the Interfax news agency that the operation had been ordered by the commander of interior troops, Oleksander Kikhtenko.

Ivan Plyushch, head of the National Security Council, told reporters that Kikhtenko was carrying out the president's latest decree to maintain order in the capital city.

Yushchenko on Friday issued a decree claiming direct command of troops previously under the Interior Ministry.

According to a statement on the presidential website, Yushchenko said the change was necessary "to prevent some political forces from using the Interior Ministry troops for their own interests, threatening Ukraine's national security."

Source: Xinhua