Fighting broke out in the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday when rival groups of deputies clashed as one faction tried to take over seats left vacant by striking left-wingers.

The left-wingers are protesting about changes which centrist and right-wing deputies have pushed through in order to try to speed up economic reform.

Yet hopes for progress were high when Leonid Kuchma was elected for a second term as president last November.

Mr Kuchma expressed the wish that he would be able to work with parliament in order to kick-start market reforms in Ukraine.

Since the republic gained its independence from the Soviet Union, all attempts at genuine reform have become bogged down in petty squabbles and personality clashes in parliament.

Western creditors are rapidly losing patience, as nothing is done to halt the economic slide.

Hunger strike

But Mr Kuchma realised shortly after his re-election that he would find it no easier working with parliament in his second term than he had in his first term.

Even he, though, could not have expected the row which would erupt, leading to centre and right-wing deputies storming out of the parliament building and setting up alternative parliamentary sessions in a nearby exhibition hall.

It was at these sessions that they elected Ivan Plyushch as the new speaker of parliament.

On Tuesday, the right-wingers returned to parliament early, leading to scuffles with left-wingers on hunger strike within the building.

When the session got under way, the left-wingers disrupted proceedings and prevented work for over an hour.

Prospects for a quick resolution to the parliamentary split look bleak.