Ukraine's ruling party has demanded a sweeping cabinet reshuffle, as political leaders seek to defuse the country's biggest political crisis in a decade.
"We have put forward a demand before Azarov to reformat the government by 90 per cent," Anna German, an MP with President Viktor Yanukovych's Regions Party, told reporters after talks with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
"Azarov said that he will today let the position of the faction be known to the president and conclusions will certainly be made," she told reporters after the closed-door meeting attended by the entire cabinet.
German, a former Yanukovych aide, said the resignation of Azarov was not discussed.
Yanukovych's decision to scrap key political and free trade agreements with the EU last month and the subsequent use of police force against protesters plunged the country into its deepest political crisis in a decade.
The announcement comes after the first direct talks between Yanukovych and the opposition collapsed on Friday.
Yanukovych offered a number of concessions including an amnesty for arrested protesters and dismissal of key officials over police violence.
But the opposition said the measures were not enough and demanded the resignation of Azarov, and early parliamentary and presidential elections.
The protest movement, now in its fourth week, is planning a major rally on Tuesday, the same day that Yanukovych is set to travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks on a strategic partnership treaty.
On Sunday nearly 300,000 protesters braved freezing temperatures to flood into central Kiev and demand that Ukraine turn away from Moscow and towards the West.
"On December 17, Viktor Yanukovych is flying to Moscow where he is planning to sign an agreement on selling Moscow into the Customs Union in exchange for salvaging his own political fate," opposition MP Borys Tarasyuk said at the Sunday protest, referring to the Moscow-led grouping that Putin wants Kiev to join.
He urged hundreds of thousands to take to the streets again to warn Yanukovych against committing "state treason".
Russia and Ukraine are expected to sign a number of agreements on Tuesday, but Kiev has denied a deal on Customs Union will be among them.
Yanukovych has tried to placate demonstrators by assuring the EU that he eventually planned to sign the association agreement and sending a delegation to Brussels.
But the bloc abruptly suspended the talks with the delegation on Sunday, saying Ukraine's leadership was being disingenuous.
"Further discussion is conditioned on clear commitment 2sign. Work on hold," EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele announced in a tweet at the start of Sunday's rally.
"Ukraine: Words and deeds of President and government regarding #AssocAgreement further and further apart," Fuele said.
Ukrainian leaders however insisted that European integration was still a priority.
Late on Sunday Yanukovych met with US Republican Senator John McCain, assuring him that Ukraine's "Eurointegration course" remained unchanged, his office said.
McCain, one of the staunchest critics of Putin's Kremlin, attended the pro-EU rally on Sunday and met with opposition leaders as well as the daughter of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yevgenia.
