Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, speaking after his Austrian doctors said on Saturday that he had been poisoned with dioxin, yesterday likened upheaval in Ukraine after a rigged election to the fall of Soviet rule or the Berlin wall.

?We had not seen anything like that for the past 100 years. I believe it would be appropriate to compare this to the fall of the Soviet Union or the fall of the Berlin wall?, Yushchenko told a news conference at the clinic where he was treated.

With his wife acting as translator, he said the protests backing his allegations of vote-rigging had produced ?a different country, a different nation?. He predicted that ?the regime that was in place for 14 years in Ukraine is now living its last days?.

The ex-Soviet state is emerging from more than two weeks of mass protests which brought much of the capital Kiev to a halt. Its Supreme Court, citing mass fraud, annulled the November 21 run-off in which Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was declared the winner over Yushchenko, and ordered a new vote on December 26.

The Vienna doctors appeared to bear out Yushchenko?s long-stated allegations that he was poisoned as part of a plot to kill him. His illness kept him out of the early stages of the campaign and left his face bloated and pocked. ?There is no doubt?, Dr Michael Zimpfer, president of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic where Yushchenko is undergoing treatment, told a news conference in the Austrian capital. ?There were high concentrations of dioxin, most likely orally administered.?

He said the dioxin poisoning had been confirmed on Saturday by a laboratory in Amsterdam, which had analyzed a blood sample.

Zimpfer initially declined to comment on whether the dioxin could have been due to accidental poisoning or contamination and said it was a question for Ukrainian authorities. But he later said the hospital believed the poisoning had been deliberate. ?We suspect a cause triggered by a third party?, he said. ?It would be easy to administer in a soup that contains cream.?

Modest crowds for Premier

There was no immediate reaction to the revelations from senior officials in Kiev.

The West-leaning Yushchenko, who draws much of his support from nationalist western Ukraine and central regions, had flown to Vienna for the weekend for further tests.

Yanukovich, who says the Supreme Court ruling is illegal, pressed on with the new campaign, addressing rallies in his strongholds of eastern Ukraine. Yanukovich, backed in the previous campaign by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Russia, addressed rallies in mining towns forming the backbone of his support. But only modest crowds turned out to hear him turn on Kuchma, his former mentor.

?He certainly is ill and I sympathize?

Speaking to 5,000 supporters in the town of Luhansk before the Vienna announcement, Yanukovich said of Yushchenko: ?He certainly is ill and I sympathize. Let him get well soon. As for the reasons, I know nothing. Let the specialists work on that.?

Yanukovich later answered questions for two hours on eastern Ukraine?s Russian-language television, a carefully organized presentation with nearly all backing his run for the presidency.

Yanukovich said his rival had been financed from outside Ukraine, denounced ?pressure? on the courts and on parliament, which dismissed him last week and restated his conviction that ties with Russia were vital for the country?s future.

He sidestepped a survey of viewers who voted three to one to make Ukraine a federation. Liberals see ?federalism? as a cover for separatism in a country with a fragile post-Soviet identity. ?We must be cautious on this. I favor a quick start to reforms which ultimately may lead to a federation?, he said. ?The main thing is to ensure that regions are self-sufficient.?

In Kiev, Finance Minister Mykola Azarov announced a revision of 2005 budget forecasts to take account of the crisis which has gripped the country, lowering its growth forecast and raising projections for inflation and the deficit.

The new figures, he said, were a conservative, realistic approach. Growth in 2005 in one of Europe?s fastest growing economies was now forecast at 6.5 percent of gross domestic product instead of the originally forecast 8.6 percent.

The inflation forecast had been raised to 8.7 percent from an earlier figure of 7.1 percent, while the budget deficit was pegged at 2.8 percent of GDP against the original 1.3 percent. ?We have come round to the central bank?s opinion and come to the conclusion that 6.5 percent is a cautious conservative assessment on which to base budget calculations?, Azarov said after a cabinet meeting.

Ron POPESK