By Helen Fawkes BBC News, Kiev

The coalition wants Mr Yanukovych to be its prime ministerial candidate

Ukraine's main pro-Russian opposition party has formed a coalition with two other political parties.

The Party of Regions says it has signed an agreement with the Socialists and the Communists in an attempt to bring order to the country.

The move comes after a general election in March in which no party won an overall majority.

It also comes after the collapse of a pro-Western coalition which backed the mass protests of the Orange Revolution.

The Party of Regions won the most seats in March's parliamentary election.

There has been political turmoil in Ukraine ever since the poll.

It took three months for the parties from the so-called Orange Revolution to agree to work together, but the coalition was fragile.

On Thursday, the team, which included the Our Ukraine party of President Viktor Yushchenko, was torn apart when the Socialist party broke ranks in order to get its leader elected as parliamentary speaker.

He was eventually appointed with overwhelming support from the opposition.

Vote-rigging allegations

The new coalition has said it wants the opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych to be its candidate for prime minister.

Mr Yanukovych was the disgraced loser in Ukraine's 2004 presidential election.

The vote was marred by allegations of mass vote-rigging and sparked the Orange Revolution, which led to the election of Mr Yushchenko.