The decision to stop the President from disbanding the Duma was taken at a meeting of Left parties and others recently. The central committee of the Communist Party is holding a crucial meeting tomorrow, on the eve of voting, to finalise its stand on voting.

Duma defence committee chief General Lev Rokhlin and security committee chairman Viktor Ilyukhin have launched a signature campaign to muster the required one-third votes to move the motion. According to the Russian news agency Novosti, the leaders have already obtained several dozen signatures.

Yelstin's prime-ministerial candidate Sergei Kiriyenko was rejected in the first two votings and the third voting would takeplace on Friday. Reports that Yeltsin may disband the Duma to skirt the looming defeat of his candidate, appoint Kiriyenko as a regular premier and order fresh elections, have forced the opposition to be on the defensive.

If the motion is carried in parliament, the case goes to the supreme court and thereafter to the constitutional court for confirmation. Pending an impeachment case, the President cannot dissolve Duma, say constitutional experts.

The chances of Kiriyenko in the third round also look bleak, pointed out the political observers who gave a 40:60 chance to him. Top opposition leader Gennadi Zhyuganov has made his party's stand clear announcing that they would not approve the inexperienced Kiriyenko. The second leading opposition party Yabloko will also oppose him, said party souces.

In the first voting on Aapril 10, Kiriyenko secured 143 votes as against 186 and in the second voting on April 17, he got 115 as against 271.

However, efforts are still on to break the deadlock. AlexanderShokhin, a top leader of the party, has suggested nomination of chairman of upper house of the parliament Yegor Stroev to the post of vice-president in Kremlin, which would bring the Communists to a compromise. But such a post is not there in Russia and it is upto the supreme authority Yeltsin to create the post and defuse the crisis.

Meanwhile, deputy speaker of Duma Vladimir Ryzhkov has denounced the impeachment motion as scandalous. President can be impeached only for treachery or any such grave crime, but Yeltsin had not committed any, he reminded his colleagues.

However, the morale of the Communists has gone up as an opinion poll last week showed that they were the first in popular rating with 37.9 per cent votes and far ahead of the second runner Yabloko who were with 17 per cent of votes. The other parties could not reach a double-digit.

Now, the country's political future and the fate of Duma depend much on the crucial voting on Friday. Earlier, the President had used guns and tanks to disband adefiant Duma in the autumn of 1993.

Iranian deals

In a series of meetings today, US officials pressed Russia on the suspected transfer of missile technology to Iran and its nuclear cooperation with the Islamic state. The US has raised the issue repeatedly, and its officials said last week Russia was moving slowly to curb missile technology deals with Iran. The State Department said it may crack down by denying funds for various projects.