Ukraine parliament appoints speaker as interim president

Ukraine's parliament has voted to name its speaker Oleksander Turchinov as interim president, one day ousting President Viktor Yanukovich.

In his maiden speech, Turchinov - a close ally of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko -urged members of parliament to agree on the formation of a national unity government by Tuesday.

Dubbing it as a "priority" task, the interim president said discussions on the new government should begin immediately.

The legitimacy of the Ukrainian parliament is unclear after Viktor Yanukovich claimed that the recent flurry of parliament decisions in recent days is illegal and that the parliament is now illegitimate.

In addition, days after he was caught on tape warning protesters to fear the army, Ukraine's former minister was also ousted. Parliament was also given the order to detain the former incomes minister and the former prosecutor-general.

Earlier on Saturday, parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovich from office, hours after he abandoned his Kiev office to protesters and denounced what he described as a coup.

The impeachment, which was backed by 328 of the 447 deputies, argues that Yanukovich abused his powers.

The Ukrainian parliament, which decisively abandoned Yanukovich after loyalists defected, declared on Saturday the president constitutionally unable to carry out his duties and set an early election for May 25.

A day after he left the Ukrainian capital Kiev, the whereabouts of Yanukovich remains unclear. Ukrainian news agencies reported that a charted airplane with Yanukovich onboard was denied permission to take off from Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine that is the president's base of support.

The political crisis in the nation of 46 million, strategically important for Europe, Russia and the United States, has changed with blinding speed repeatedly in the past week. First there were signs that tensions were easing, followed by horrifying violence and then a deal signed under Western pressure that aimed to resolve the conflict but left the unity of the country in question.

Yanukovich's shelving of an agreement with the EU in November set off the wave of protests, but they quickly expanded their grievances to corruption, human rights abuses and calls for Yanukovich's resignation.

On her part, hours after being released from prison former Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called on protesters to keep occupying the square until those guilty of killing and of violence be brought to justice and praised the demonstrators killed in violence.