KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko urged unity Wednesday after bitterly contested parliamentary elections, inviting his Russian-backed opponents to join a broad coalition government.

"My main goal is that Ukraine should emerge united from these elections," Yushchenko said in a televised address.

He said he had instructed "all" parties that won seats in Sunday's snap election to start "provisional political consultations on the formation of a majority in the Ukrainian parliament and formation of a government."

Yushchenko was speaking after near final results showed that he and Yulia Tymoshenko, his ally from the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution, had won a slender controlling share of the ex-Soviet republic's 450-seat Rada, or parliament.

This put him in position to immediately announce the formation of a pro-Western government headed by Tymoshenko and end the premiership of Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Instead he called for cross-party consensus, an olive branch quickly welcomed by Yanukovych, who heads the pro-Russian Regions Party.

"Yanukovych supports the position of the president of Ukraine," his press service said, Interfax reported.

But Tymoshenko, the fiery reformist who was a figurehead of the Orange Revolution, quickly rejected the idea of sharing power with Yanukovych.

"If the coalition is formed between Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions, our political force will stay in opposition," the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc said in a statement.

With Tymoshenko refusing to work with Yanukovych, both forces were left needing a deal with Yushchenko's Our Ukraine to form a government.

Analysts were divided over whether Yushchenko's offer was genuine or whether he was just going through the motions in an attempt to heal wounds inflicted on the country of 47 million people in three years of political turmoil.

"It was an empty formality," said Nico Lange, at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. "Coalition talks take a long time in Ukraine," he added.

Yushchenko did not mention who he wanted as premier, but aides, including a senior official in the presidential administration on Tuesday, made clear that he aims to change Yanukovych for Tymoshenko.

She is popular among Ukrainian nationalists and those supporting efforts to wrest Ukraine from Russia's centuries-old dominance.

However, expectations that she would become prime minister raised fears of difficult relations with Moscow -- an issue highlighted by threats of a new gas dispute this week between Russian giant Gazprom and Ukraine.

Without cooperation of the Regions Party, which was set to be the biggest single force in parliament, an Orange coalition would also be well short of the needed 300 votes needed to make constitutional changes.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko shot to worldwide fame when they led the 2004 Orange Revolution to overturn a rigged presidential election victory by Yanukovych.

Yushchenko won the rerun and launched a pro-Western administration -- a humiliation for Russian foreign policy that sent shockwaves through President Vladimir Putin's administration.

However, for the last 11 months he had been forced to deal with his bitter rival Yanukovych as prime minister, a chaotic period that forced the calling of Sunday's early election -- the third national poll in as many years.

The strong performance of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in Sunday's poll allowed a revival of her on-and-off alliance with Yushchenko.

With 99.68 percent of ballots counted, their Orange coalition had won 45 percent of the vote.

The Regions Party, headed by Yanukovych, had 34.3 percent.

Yanukovych could in theory assemble a rival coalition with 43.5 percent of the vote, just 1.5 percentage points behind a possible Western-leaning alliance.

Amid accusations of fraud, there was the possibility of a court challenge by the small Socialist Party, which appeared to have narrowly failed to cross the three percent threshold for entry to parliament, robbing Yanukovych of a crucial extra parliamentary ally.