Ukraine liberal calls for strike over poll result

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko yesterday 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," Mr Yushchenko told tens of thousands of supporters massed in Kiev's main square as heavy snow fell.

Mr 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 Mr 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 Mr Yushchenko, said the opposition wanted action that would halt transport and close factories and schools.

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

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

An earlier offer of Mr 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 Mr 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 Mr 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 Mr Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed, in a telephone conversation, that Ukraine should solve its crisis through legal means.