Support for jailed Ukraine politician

KIEV, Ukraine -- Supporters of Ukraine's former deputy prime minister have held the latest in a series of protests against the government.

Several hundred people gathered in Kiev on Friday to denounce the arrest of Yulia Tymoshenko and imprisonment on bribery allegations.

They allege that the charges are part of a political witch-hunt by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.

The protesters, all believed to be members of Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party, picketed the prosecutor-general's office and demanded her release.

"Yulia! Yulia! Yulia!" the crowd chanted in unison, waving blue, yellow and purple party flags. Some waved placards proclaiming: "Free Yulia Tymoshenko."

Kuchma vowed on Friday that the opposition would never come to power but refused to say whether he would use force against the protesters.

"I know there are some people who hate President Kuchma ferociously, because they have not managed to come to power and they will never come to power," Kuchma said during a visit to a youth cultural centre in the capital Kiev.

Asked whether he planned to deploy tough measures against opposition protesters, Kuchma said: "What do you mean, 'opposition?' I do not understand that and I do not want to consider these people as an opposition.

"What are they opposing -- our country, the president, the authorities? There will be an opposition when we have a law on political parties, on opposition, when this opposition... would have some duties, not destructive ones but those accepted in the whole world, and would bear responsibility for its actions."

Tymoshenko, sacked from government by Kuchma in January, was detained on Tuesday on charges of bribing a former premier with $79 million in the mid-1990s when she was head of a gas trading firm.

She is being held in Lukyanovska jail in Kiev.

Her arrest came as opposition parties and rights groups staged protests across the country calling for Kuchma to resign over allegations he ordered the kidnap of a journalist who was subsequently believed murdered.

Kuchma denied involvement and said the popular protests sparked by Heorhiy Gongadze's disappearance and the discovery of a headless corpse were being orchestrated by forces trying to destabilise his country.

'Political victim'

Despite the pressure, analysts in Kiev believe that Kuchma is unlikely to be toppled soon, saying the president, re-elected for another five-year term in 1999, has some popular support and a firm grip on government.

The demonstrations remain relatively small -- the largest saw about 5,000 march on Sunday. The opposition movement, "Ukraine without Kuchma," has promised a bigger turn-out on February 25.

Before her arrest, Tymoshenko, 40, was a leading member of the Forum for National Salvation, a grouping of opposition parties dedicated to bringing down Kuchma.

Polls show many Ukrainians are sceptical of her business links but see her as a victim of political machinations.

"We are protesting because of the arrest of Tymoshenko and the Gongadze tapes scandal," Ivan Makhanach, a member of Tymoshenko's party, said.

Opposition politicians have published tapes on which a voice similar to Kuchma's is heard giving orders to "deal with" the missing reporter. Opposition parties have criticised the investigation into Gongadze's disappearance.

Investigators still have make a definite identification of the body despite DNA tests that strongly suggest it is that of the reporter. Kuchma was quoted in a recent newspaper interview as acknowledging it was almost certainly Gongadze.

Kuchma has warned that Ukraine faces collapse because of the scandal, fearing that foreign investors will be deterred by the political upheaval.

On Tuesday, he made a rare appeal to the nation for calm but also warned of retaliatory action against protesters.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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