Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been found guilty of abuse of office and jailed for seven years in a case widely condemned in the West as politically motivated.

She was convicted in a Ukrainian court of violating legal procedures during the signing of a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009.

Ms Tymoshenko dismisses the trial as a government attempt to bar her from upcoming elections and as persecution by her arch-foe President Viltor Yanukovych.

Earlier, under Ukrainian court procedures, the judge read a a lengthy summary of the case during which he said Ms Tymoshenko inflicted damages of some 1.5 billion hryvna on the national gas company by signing the contract with Russia.

Ms Tymoshenko, now the country's top opposition leader, used her power as prime minister "for criminal ends and, acting consciously, committed actions which clearly exceeded the limits of rights and powers," the judge said.

Prosecutors say she was not authorised to order the signing of the contract and say the price for natural gas she agreed to was too high, causing losses to the state budget.

Ms Tymoshenko says that as a prime minister she did not need any special permission to order the deal. She says her actions helped end a bitter pricing dispute between Moscow and Kiev, which had led to energy supply shortages across Europe.

She has already been jailed for more than two months during the trial for contempt of court.

Ms Tymoshenko, wearing her trademark blonde braid wrapped around her head, looked composed in the court, occasionally chatting with her daughter Eugenia. She even occasionally addressed reporters while the judge read out the lengthy ruling, causing him to become visibly irritated.

"Whatever the verdict will be ... I will continue my fight for Ukraine, for its European future," she said during a short break before the verdict. "Nobody, not Yanukovych, not Kireyev, can humiliate my honest name. I have worked and will continue to work for Ukraine's sake."

Ms Tymoshenko was the driving force behind the 2004 Orange Revolution, which overturned Mr Yanukovych's fraud-tainted election victory then. he staged a comeback, narrowly defeating her in a 2010 presidential vote amid public disenchantment with economic hardships and constant bickering.