Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, freed from prison guard on Saturday after her arch-rival President Viktor Yanukovich fled Kiev, said on Sunday she did not want to be considered for the post of prime minister.
Earlier, her supporters in parliament said she was one of the three favourites to be named to head a government of national unity.
"It was a surprise for me when I heard that I was being proposed for the post of prime minister. Nobody agreed this with me or discussed it with me.
"I am grateful for the respect this shows, but I ask not to be considered for this post," she said in comments on her website.
Her comments suggested that Tymoshenko - who was narrowly defeated by Yanukovich for the presidency in February 2010 and was later jailed in 2011 for abuse of office as prime minister - may be eying another run to be head of state.
Tymoshenko also drew support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a phone call on Sunday, Tymoshenko's press service said.
Merkel "congratulated Yulia Tymoshenko on her release and expressed the certainty that her return to mainstream politics would become one of the main factors in stabilising the situation in Ukraine", a statement said.
Merkel said Tymoshenko's return to political life would also contribute to preserving the unity of Ukraine and helping it along the path of European reform, it added.
This comes after the Ukrainian parliament voted to dismiss Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara, forcing out an ally of President Viktor Yanukovich.
Kozhara has been closely involved in discussions with foreign powers over Yanukovich's decision to spurn political and trade deals with the European Union and rebuild economic ties with Russia instead. A successor was not immediately named.
Also, the Parliament voted to temporarily hand over the duties of president to the speaker of the assembly, Oleksander Turchinov.
Lawmakers had already backed a motion on Saturday to oust President Viktor Yanukovich, who had abandoned the capital for eastern Ukraine and denounced what he called a "coup d'etat".
This as Ukraine's parliamentary speaker told deputies to agree on the formation of a national unity government by Tuesday.
"This is a priority task," the speaker, Oleksander Turchinov, said in parliament.
He said discussions on the new government should begin immediately, one day after the chamber voted to oust President Viktor Yanukovich and two days after an agreement was reached with Yanukovich on the need to form a national unity government.
Also on Sunday, an order has been given to arrest Ukraine's former incomes minister Oleksander Klimenko and former prosecutor-general Viktor Pshonka, parliament was told.
Oleh Makhnytsky, acting prosecutor general, said: "An investigation has been opened and an investigating-operational group is working for the detention of these people to bring them to trial."
Ukraine's new acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, also told parliament that police were working with state security and the prosecutor's office to investigate "grave crimes against the Ukrainian people, including those by former state leaders."
Positions:
U.S. President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, said on Sunday it would be a "grave mistake" for Russia to send military forces into Ukraine and that it is not in the interest of Russia, Europe or the United States to see Ukraine split apart.
Speaking on the NBC program "Meet the Press," Rice was asked about a possible scenario in which Russia would send forces into Ukraine to restore a government more friendly to Moscow.
"That would be a grave mistake. It's not in the interests of Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or the United States to see a country split. It's in nobody's interest to see violence return and the situation escalate," Rice said.
"There is not an inherent contradiction ... between a Ukraine that has longstanding historic and cultural ties to Russia and a modern Ukraine that wants to integrate more closely with Europe. This need not be mutually exclusive," Rice said following the political upheaval in Ukraine.
This as, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a phone call that Ukraine's "territorial integrity" must be safeguarded and that the country urgently needed a functional government.
"They underscored their joint interest in a stable Ukraine - both in economic and political terms," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement, adding they had agreed to stay in close contact.
The Kremlin said in an earlier separate statement the two leaders had spoken in a call initiated by Berlin.
REUTERS