Ukraine President Backs New Vote

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said Monday that the nation could hold a new election to settle the escalating crisis over the presidential runoff, the Interfax news agency reported.

Kuchma said a new vote might now be the only way out of the standoff in which tens of thousands of opposition supporters have blocked official buildings in the capital for several days and eastern provinces are threatening to seek autonomy.

"If we really want to preserve peace and accord, if we really want to build a democratic state ... let's hold new elections," Kuchma said, according to Interfax. It was his strongest suggestion so far that a new vote could be held.

Ukraine's Supreme Court on Monday began considering opposition presidential Viktor Yushchenko's appeal of official election results that announced Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of the Nov. 21 presidential runoff.

The United States and other Western nations have refused to recognize the official results, pointing at evidence of rampant official fraud.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain was urging all parties in the dispute over the Ukraine election result to continue to show restraint.

"Our ambassador in Kiev is seeing the Ukrainian interior minister this afternoon with a message to that effect," Straw said.

Yushchenko has pushed for a revote of the runoff, but Kuchma's remarks suggested the government may want to start the election process from scratch.

Yanukovych said Monday he would support another presidential vote if allegations of fraud in last week's election are proven.

Yanukovych said he would call on voters in Donetsk and Luhansk — two industrial regions in Ukraine's east where he has strong backing — to participate.

Lawmakers in Donetsk, Yanukovych's native region, voted Sunday to hold a referendum on autonomy for the province.

But Yanukovych, who has the support of Kuchma and the Kremlin, added that he had not seen any evidence of fraud, and he suggested that another vote would be illegal.

"If there is evidence of falsification, I will agree with this decision," Yanukovych said while attending a meeting with Kuchma and top officials from eastern Ukraine.

Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who claims he was robbed of victory, has called for a new election and the Supreme Court is considering his appeal to have the results of the Nov. 21 vote thrown out.

Justice Anatoliy Yarema said earlier Monday the court would give Yanukovych's lawyers until 10 a.m. Tuesday to study additional evidence presented by Yushchenko's team.

Yushchenko's team is asking the court to throw out the results, cancel the election commission's decision and name Yushchenko the victor because he narrowly won the Oct. 31 first-round vote.