KIEV, Feb 4 (AFP): Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych could call early elections to end mass anti-government unrest, a top lawmaker told AFP on Tuesday, as protest leaders demanded curbs to presidential powers in a stormy parliamentary debate.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton meanwhile was set to arrive in Kiev to press for a resolution, as Europe and the United States discussed a possible financial aid package to Ukraine in exchange for democratic reforms.
Ukraine's protests erupted in November after Yanukovych rejected a key EU pact in favour of closer ties with Moscow, and the turmoil has now become an all-out movement to oust him.
The opposition pressed for concessions at a parliament session in which world champion boxer turned protest leader Vitali Klitschko called for an "end to the dictatorship".
Fellow opponent, nationalist Oleg Tyagnybok, called for "de-Putinization"-a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding: "The Kremlin is trying to break up Ukraine".
The crisis has sparked tensions between the West, which is considering sanctions against Ukrainian officials, and Russia, which has accused the EU and US of interference in Ukraine.
Opposition MPs chanted "Killers! Killers! Killers!" as the chief lawmaker of Yanukovych's ruling Regions Party, Oleksandr Yefremov, took the floor with an emotional speech in which he blasted the protesters' "extremism".
But Yuriy Miroshnychenko, Yanukovych's personal representative in parliament, struck a conciliatory tone, saying that the president was considering "two possible scenarios".
"The first is the release of occupied buildings and an amnesty and the second is early elections. The amnesty is not working out," he said, referring to the release of scores of detained activists demanded by protesters.
