Ukraine's outgoing president calls for foreign mediation

Ukraine’s outgoing President Leonid Kuchma today accused the opposition of reneging on compromise agreements and called for quick foreign mediation of his nation’s post-election political crisis.

Kuchma made the claim in a telephone conversation with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

“The opposition isn’t fulfilling practically any of the agreements reached at a round table that involved European politicians,” Kuchma’s office quoted him as saying. “That exacerbates the situation in the country.”

Kuchma called for “an immediate session of the round table to discuss the fulfilment of earlier agreements.”

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and other European mediators sponsored two rounds of talks over the past week with Kuchma, opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko and his Kremlin-backed rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

The latest round of talks on Wednesday ended with Yushchenko’s promise to withdraw his supporters from official buildings they have blockaded to protest fraud in the Nov. 21 runoff election.

Yushchenko won a major victory yesterday with the Supreme Court declaring the poll void and setting the opposition-demanded re-run vote for December 26.

Yushchenko’s supporters said they would maintain their tented camp in the centre of the capital Kiev and continue besieging government buildings until the parliament passes opposition-demanded electoral changes to prevent fraud during the poll re-run.