Yanukovich claims narrow Ukraine win

With just over 95 percent of votes counted, election officials gave Yanukovich a margin of a mere 2.09 percentage points over Prime Minister Tymoshenko.

But a Central Election Commission official told Reuters that Yanukovich remained the winner of Sunday's vote. With votes still co come from his strongholds in the south and east, the gap with Tymoshenko was expected to increase rather than shrink, Commission member Mykhailo Okhendovskiy said.

Analysts said the slender gap might encourage Tymoshenko, who earlier warned Yanukovich against celebrating victory prematurely, to press for advantage or contest the result.

"The situation is developing in favour of going to the courts and some sort of deal," said Viktor Nebozhenko of the Ukrainian Barometre centre. "It is not really clear who has won. The forces are more or less equal."

"If it is 3 percentage points or less it is contestable. The temptation will be there for her to make a challenge," said Andrew Wilson, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Tymoshenko's camp, alleging fraud, offered a "parallel count" late on Sunday that saw her edging out her rival. The margin in the official results made it likely that Tymoshenko would mount a legal challenge, prolonging the uncertainty.

Analysts, however, added that she may wait to hear the verdict of international monitors, led by the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, on the election before taking a course of action. They were due to deliver their findings later on Monday.

The official results signalled a comeback for the rough-hewn Yanukovich, tagged as Moscow's stooge five years ago when street protests overturned results that initially gave him victory in an election tainted by fraud.

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