Ukraine liberal calls for strike over poll result

KIEV - Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has called for a national strike that would halt transport and shut factories in protest at the declaration that his Moscow-backed rival had won election as president.

He said that naming Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich president, after an election marked by mass cheating, brought Ukraine to "the brink of civil conflict".

"We do not recognise the election result as officially declared," Yushchenko told tens of thousands of supporters massed in Kiev's main square as heavy snow fell.

Yanukovich himself appeared briefly on state television, saying he was president and proposing talks with rival Yushchenko. "We will look for common ground. I am ready to listen to the opposition proposals," he said.

Just two hours earlier, electoral authorities, ignoring US and other Western appeals, declared Yanukovich winner of Sunday's run-off by nearly three percentage points.

The announcement by the electoral authorities, that came even as signs emerged of a possible compromise in the bitter feud, drew immediate censure from Washington.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States did not accept the results and added there could be "consequences for our relationship".

While Yushchenko allies called on supporters to refrain from radical action, he himself said the opposition wanted a "political strike".

Olexander Moroz, Socialist Party leader and a backer of Yushchenko, said the opposition wanted action that would halt transport and close factories and schools.

But Moroz said the crisis could still be resolved by holding new elections as Yushchenko had offered earlier.

"People will have to look for truth in the streets in open struggle," Yushchenko declared. He said the strike would be "our answer to the lawlessness of (outgoing President Leonid) Kuchma and Yanukovich".

An earlier offer of Yushchenko to run in new elections under tighter rules appeared to offer the beleaguered authorities a way out of the crisis. A later statement by Yanukovich that he did not want a "fictitious victory" had strengthened the view that a compromise was in the making.

Earlier in the day the United States, the European Union and the US-led Nato military alliance all urged authorities to review the conduct of Sunday's run-off which most western powers have said was fraudulently conducted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who quickly congratulated Yanukovich when it was clear he was winning, also looked ready to see an end to the crisis in its ex-Soviet ally.

The Kremlin said that Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed, in a telephone conversation, that Ukraine should solve its crisis through legal means.

The crisis surrounding the disputed election has convulsed the ex-Soviet state of 47 million, that has borders with the European Union and Russia, since early on Monday.

Yushchenko's allegations that he was robbed of the election sparked mass unrest in Kiev and other Yushchenko strongholds in western Ukraine, bringing tens of thousands out onto the streets and paralysing normal life.

The two rivals stand for different images for the future of Ukraine, where the average worker earns just US$60 ($85) a month.

Yanukovich sees future prosperity in closer ties with Russia. Yushchenko favours gradual integration with western Europe but recognises Russia as a strategic partner.

The crisis has raised tension between the United States and Russia, battling for influence over the ex-Soviet state.

Nationalist western Ukraine, like Kiev, has taken a strong pro-Yushchenko line. But the mood of near-revolution seen in Kiev was markedly different from that in Russian-speaking regions that heavily back Yanukovich.

In Donetsk, a big coal-mining centre, slogans were pinned to fences denouncing Yushchenko as a traitor. Protests supporting Yanukovich were being held in pits and factories. Miners were trying to get to Kiev to counter opposition rallies.

- REUTERS