Tension lingers after Ukraine poll

KIEV - The winner of Ukraine's bitterly fought presidential election has called on supporters to block a cabinet meeting on Wednesday after his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, refused to concede defeat.
Yanukovich, who has been dismissed as prime minister by parliament, was preparing to chair the meeting a day after results
showed opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko had beaten him in the re-run of last month's rigged election.

Yushchenko, who wants to nudge the former Soviet state towards Europe, told tens of thousands of supporters on Tuesday night that Yanukovich had no right to remain in office.

"Let me officially declare there will be no meeting of the government, this illegal government," Yushchenko told the chanting crowd in central Kiev's Independence Square.

"An honest government should take over there ... Dear friends, I ask you to strengthen a blockade of the government building tomorrow from early in the morning."

Although Yanukovich was sacked earlier this month, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma never signed a final decree.

His return to work this week appeared to be a sign he hopes to exploit his sole remaining power base.

Yanukovich has promised to petition the Supreme Court over what he says were mass irregularities in Sunday's poll.

FINALLY FREE

The Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog and one of the few pan-European organisations of which Ukraine is a member, has urged all sides to accept the verdict.

Official confirmation could take several days, but the preliminary full count showed Yushchenko had 51.99 per cent of the vote to the premier's 44.19 per cent.

The United States prodded Ukraine's courts on Tuesday to uphold Yushchenko's victory if Yanukovich goes ahead with his legal challenge.

Yanukovich won the original November 21 run-off but the Supreme Court overturned the result on grounds of fraud.

Yushchenko, still recovering from dioxin poisoning he has blamed on the authorities, said his victory meant Ukraine was finally free 14 years after independence from Soviet rule.

He pledged to align the country with the West following a decade of scandal and corruption under Kuchma.

"In 30 days, we have managed to achieve the notion that we live in a different country," he told the crowd on Tuesday.

He also called on his supporters to gather in the square for a mass celebration on New Year's Eve.

The election, the third in two months, highlighted a centuries-old divide between the country's pro-Yushchenko Ukrainian-speaking west and Russian-speaking industrialised east, Yanukovich's stronghold.

Western observers have praised the poll but Russia said that here were again violations.

- REUTERS