Yulia Tymoshenko was yesterday endorsed as Ukraine's prime minister after winning a wafer-thin majority in a parliamentary vote.
Ms Tymoshenko will head a pro-western coalition formed by her political bloc and allies of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president.
Ms Tymoshenko replaces Viktor Yanukovich, the Moscow-friendly premier, whose year-long tussle over authority with Mr Yushchenko led to the president dissolving parliament in spring.
Ms Tymoshenko regained the role of prime minister after a strong showing in snap elections in September. Her brief 2005 period in office was cut short by the appointment of Mr Yushchenko.
After a vote on the premiership failed last week due to alleged tampering with an electronic computerised voting system, Ms Tymoshenko's candidacy was yesterday upheld by a one-vote majority on a show of hands. Trust in her among pro-presidential lawmakers is weak due to fears that she will challenge Mr Yushchenko in the 2010 presidential campaign.
Ms Tymoshenko's candidacy mustered 226 votes, the minimum requirement for a majority in the 450-seat legislature. Backed by 156 seats in Ms Tymoshenko's Byut bloc and 72 within the pro-presidential Our Ukraine grouping, the coalition marks the first majority Mr Yushchenko can count on since he was propelled to the presidency in the 2004 Orange Revolution.
Her coalition is expected to rejuvenate efforts to join Nato and the European Union. However, she is also expected to shake up relations with Moscow, which this year imposed the third stiff price increase in as many years on natural gas exports to Ukraine, a large consumer and key transit artery for Russian supplies to Europe.
Ms Tymoshenko has pledged to remove murky intermediaries from the multibillion-dollar gas trade between Kiev, Moscow and central Asian producers.
She said the coalition would adopt "deep reforms" and fight corruption. She also issued a warning to influential supporters of Mr Yanukovich from the world of business who, in her words, benefited from shadowy privatisation.
"Sooner or later the entire mob will have to account before Ukraine for what they have done," she said.
Ms Tymoshenko's cabinet will seek to maintain Ukraine's strong economic growth and to fend off inflationary pressures, sparked largely by sharp price rises on fuel imports.
In recent days, Russia's Gazprom has warned that a repeat of a 2006 gas supply stand-off could materialise should Ms Tymoshenko push to renegotiate an agreement signed by the outgoing government. This could pose serious risks for Europe, which gets most of its -Russian gas supplies via Ukraine's pipeline system.
Andriy Kozhemyakin, a Tymoshenko ally, said the new government would not rush to review the agreement this year.
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