Ukraine Opposition Pulls Out of Talks

[Khephra]

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's opposition, whose insistence that it was cheated out of victory in a presidential election has brought thousands onto the streets, on Tuesday rejected talks in favor of "people power."

Its withdrawal from negotiations crushed earlier optimism that the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, might back a re-run to end the standoff over the election of his protege, prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.

International mediators headed back to Kiev for talks on Wednesday -- the day when parliament and the Supreme Court could hand down their own verdicts on the dispute.

"The authorities, Kuchma and Yanukovich, used the talks to cheat," opposition leader Taras Stetskyv told thousands of supporters of the losing presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, in central Kiev.

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