Top Kuchma opponent held in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- A leading opponent of Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma has been arrested, heightening tension in the former Soviet state.

Former deputy prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a key figure in the Forum for National Salvation, a group of opposition parties who want Kuchma to resign over the mystery disappearance of a journalist.

News of her arrest came as Kuchma made a special appeal to the nation for calm, following street protests calling on him to stand down.

Tymoshenko was sacked last month after being accused of smuggling and forgery dating from her time as head of Ukraine's biggest private gas trading firm, Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UES).

She was overseeing a reform programme in the notoriously corrupt energy sector at the time of her dismissal and maintains the charges against her are politically motivated.

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Analysts claim the reforms were opposed by many of Kuchma's allies in business.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday the charges against Tymoshenko had been widened. They now include accusations that she gave $79 million in bribes to disgraced ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who has been convicted of money laundering and is in jail in the U.S.

"Today Yulia Tymoshenko was arrested... the decision was taken to stop her evading investigation," Mykola Obykhod, deputy general prosecutor, told reporters in Kiev.

Polls show many Ukrainians, while sceptical of her business ties, believe Tymoshenko is the victim of a witch-hunt.

Her arrest, temporarily at least, diverted attention away from the campaign to oust Kuchma.

Opponents are pressing for Kuchma's resignation or impeachment over tapes recorded secretly last year that purport to show Kuchma ordering officials to "deal with" a critical journalist.

Heorhiy Gongadze, who had criticised Kuchma, went missing in September 2000 in what many Ukrainians describe as a political case and a decapitated body, believed to be his, was found in November.

The case has turned into Ukraine's biggest scandal for a decade and has caused the United States and the European Union to call for a full inquiry.

A delegation from the EU was in the capital Kiev on Tuesday.

Anna Lindh, Foreign Minister of Sweden -- which currently holds the EU presidency -- said Gongadze would be discussed, but she foresaw no sanctions against Ukraine.

The national address by Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and parliament speaker Ivan Plyushch called for calm, but also threatened official retaliation if things got out of hand.

"One cannot but see that efforts to ignite elements of the street, to launch provocative tricks...force the state to strong resistance, create real threats to national security," the statement said.

It said that an unprecedented political campaign had been launched, whose authors wanted to get into power and escape prosecution. It named no names.

Protests against Kuchma have been swelling. On Sunday several thousand people marched through central Kiev calling for him to step down.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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