Ukrainian president announces 'peace deal' after deadly clashes

An agreement on resolving the crisis in Ukraine was reached at all-night talks involving President Viktor Yanukovich, the opposition and three European Union ministers, the presidential press service has said.

It said in a statement that the deal would be signed at noon local time (1000 GMT) but gave no details, the Reuters news agency reported.

The opposition and EU ministers did not immediately confirm agreement had been reached and diplomatic sources said the talks had been "very difficult."

A shaky peace reigned in the protest camps in downtown Kiev on Friday morning after days of fighting left more than 100 people dead.

On Thurdsay, the European Union agreed to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Ukrainian officials who are deemed responsible for the violence in the country, according to EU foreign ministers and officials.

Thursday's announcement came hours after at least 100 people were killed in the anti-government protests in Ukraine, a day after the US imposed its own targeted sanctions on various Ukrainian officials.

Yanukovich was expected to "make concessions in order to restore peace," Interfax Ukraine news agency had quoted his spokeswoman Anna German as saying.

Support for the president had appeared to be weakening, as reports said the army's deputy chief of staff, Yury Dumansky, was resigning in "disagreement with the politics of pulling the armed forces into an internal civil conflict."

Late on Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament passed a measure that would prohibit an "anti-terrorist operation" threatened by Yanukovich to restore order, and called for all interior ministry troops to return to their bases.

But it was unclear how binding the move would be, as the mechanism for carrying it out would have to be developed by the president's office and the interior ministry.

On Friday morning, several thousand protesters milled around Independence Square, known as the Maidan, which earlier this week was rocked by street battles between protesters and police.

No visible police forces remained on the square, and volunteers walked freely to the protest camps to donate food and other packages.

Yanukovich and the opposition protesters are locked in a battle over the identity of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million that has divided loyalties between Russia and the West.

Parts of the country - mostly in its western cities - are in open revolt against Yanukovich's central government, while many in eastern Ukraine back the president and favor strong ties with Russia, their former Soviet ruler.