Kravchuk Seeking New Powers to Speed Reforms in Ukraine

President Leonid M. Kravchuk asked Parliament on Tuesday for sweeping executive powers to help him push through economic reforms. He attacked the “imperialist thinking” that he said has caused tension with Russia.

“The foundation of our state is taking place in difficult times. The economic downturn is continuing. . . . People are losing faith in our ability to improve the situation,” Kravchuk told Parliament’s opening session. “The policy of putting off economic reform has reached the limit of the reasonable.”

Kravchuk said he has faith in Prime Minister Vitold Fokin, widely criticized for excessive caution in starting a privatization program to speed the country’s move to a market economy.

But he said he is seeking wider powers to enable him to form a new government after consulting other parties.

It was not immediately clear when Parliament will act on his request. If granted, it would give Kravchuk decree-issuing powers similar to those of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

Kravchuk, elected president of newly independent Ukraine on Dec. 1, condemned the “imperialist thinking” that he said has heightened tensions with Russia, Ukraine’s powerful neighbor in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

He blamed the media for whipping up a dispute between the two states over Ukraine’s claim to the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet and a Russian move to take back the Crimean Peninsula it gave to Ukraine in 1954.