Ukraine Parliament Dismisses Cabinet : Europe: President will have to scramble to keep market reform going. But ouster may allow him to choose his own team.

Parliament dismissed the acting prime minister and his Cabinet on Tuesday just minutes before President Leonid D. Kuchma went on television to commend their work on free-market reforms.

The no-confidence vote will force Kuchma to scramble to keep the reform program on track against Communist and socialist opposition. But his advisers welcomed it as an opportunity for the president, who took office nine months ago with a holdover government not of his choosing.

“Now the president can form a new Cabinet of like-minded reformers,” national security adviser Volodymyr Horbulin said.

Ukraine has suffered four years of economic free fall. But in his first state-of-the-nation speech, Kuchma said his Western-backed reforms are starting to show results that should encourage President Clinton when he visits next month.

Production in some areas of the economy has risen for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed, Kuchma said, while the currency is stabilizing and inflation is low enough for the national bank to cut its prime lending rate.

Those modest achievements are largely because of the ministers Kuchma appointed by decree, including Deputy Prime Minister Victor Pinzenyk. But the Cabinet also included ministers nominated by former President Leonid M. Kravchuk 24 days before he lost his bid for reelection.

The Cabinet’s demise came five weeks after Kuchma forced Vitaly Masol, the holdover Communist prime minister, to resign. Yevhen Marchuk, named acting prime minister last month, has been critical of ministers “who work 9 to 5” in the midst of a crushing economic crisis.

Kuchma has one month to nominate a new Cabinet. But because Parliament must approve the prime minister as well as the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, interior, justice and finance, most analysts expect some intense back-room dealing.

Communists and socialists, who make up about one-third of the Parliament, are bitterly opposed to Kuchma’s appointees, including Pinzenyk, Economics Minister Roman Shpek and the foreign trade coordinator, Serhiy Osyka.

Although their reappointments do not require Parliament’s approval, their remaining in the government could hold up the approval of those who do.

Horbulin suggested that Kuchma would not let them go easily. “These are our main reformers,” he said. “The government can’t continue without them.”

Despite the no-confidence vote, Marchuk is considered the favorite for the post of prime minister. A Ukrainian language teacher turned KGB agent in the Soviet era, Marchuk rose to become independent Ukraine’s security chief. He is regarded as a hard worker, excellent organizer and supporter of market reform.

Besides, said political analyst Danylo Yanevsky, “no one can say anything against Marchuk because no one knows what he has on them in his files.”

In his nationally televised speech, Kuchma called for streamlining the Soviet-style government. He repeated his demand that lawmakers approve his proposed “law on power,” which would create a chain of command from the president to local executive bodies.

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The Ukrainian president has no legal levers to control local executive bodies. Opposition lawmakers fearful of a powerful presidency have been blocking the bill’s approval.

But the case for such a law has been strengthened in rebellious Crimea, where both Kuchma and Parliament want to crack down on pro-Russian separatists. Last month Parliament voted to eliminate the Black Sea peninsula’s independence-oriented constitution and presidency. Then, unchallenged by Parliament, Kuchma took personal command of Crimea’s government.

“Legally, the only local government Kuchma controls today is Crimea’s,” Yanevsky said.