Moldovan power struggle deepens

The president of Moldova, Petru Lucinschi, says he will dissolve parliament and call early elections, following its failure to elect his successor.

It follows a ruling by the constitutional court that the president had the right to do so, because the parliament had failed in its attempts to decide who should succeed Mr Lucinschi.

Right-wing members of the Moldovan parliament boycotted voting sessions on three occasions to prevent the election of a communist candidate, Vladimir Voronin.

The parliament had already changed the Moldovan constitution to scrap direct presidential polls after a power struggle with the president. President Lucinschi now says he will stay in office until the new parliament elects his successor next spring.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service