Ukraine parliament in brawl as members pick speaker

Ukraine's newly elected parliament broke into a violent brawl Thursday while choosing a new speaker from Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's ruling party.

Most members got involved in the scrum at one point or another, although world heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, who heads the UDAR (Punch) party, chose to look on and did not join into the brawl, the Kyiv Postreported.

He joked to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper that his punches would be too dangerous, the Post reported.

"I understand that many people want Klitschko to launch an offensive but I would like to remind (them) that, for example, in the United States a boxer's fists are considered weapons and the fists of a world champion are considered nuclear weapons," the fighter said. "We will not use these weapons for now."

It was the second rowdy day for the parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, in which Yanukovych's Party of Regions holds a slim majority.

Despite an election in October that the West has condemned as unfair, three opposition parties made a strong showing and vowed to challenge Yanukovych when the session opened, the Associated Press reported.

The fighting reflected the sharp political divisions between the largely Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine in the East, and the Ukrainian-speaking population in the West.

Opposition deputies chanted "Shame!" whenever a Regions MP spoke in Russian and tried to remove one Russian speaker from the rostrum, the Post reported.

Volodymyr Rybak, 66, who was eventually elected speaker, comes from the eastern Ukrainian industrial hub Donetsk, the power base of the Regions party.

The opposition, which includes deputies loyal to jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, nationalists from the far-right Svoboda and a liberal party led by boxing champion Klitschko.