Pro-Westerner leading in vote to head Ukraine

The liberal opposition candidate who favors closer ties to the West appeared headed to victory in Sunday's presidential election in Ukraine.

Three exit surveys taken after the polls closed Sunday night showed Viktor Yushchenko, an economist and former prime minister, leading Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych by as many as 19 percentage points.

Yanukovych supporters in the capital Kiev called the exit polls premature and inaccurate. Final results are not expected until today, at the earliest.

Yushchenko, 50, who has an American wife, positioned himself as a reform-minded, anticorruption democrat who would seek closer ties with Europe and the West.

But he also pledged to withdraw the 1,600 Ukrainian troops deployed in Iraq, a commitment he derided as a transparent attempt by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to curry favor with the Bush administration.

Yanukovych, 54, was endorsed by the Soviet-style strongman Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has proposed stronger political and economic ties with neighboring Russia, including the adoption of Russian as Ukraine's second language.

The election campaign has been both nasty and surreal.

In early September, Yushchenko claimed he had been poisoned by government operatives. He retreated to Austria for a month of treatment, but the hospital in Vienna issued a statement saying there was no poisoning. That statement was later retracted, although no definitive cause for Yushchenko's illness was given.

The two candidates finished in a virtual dead heat during the first round three weeks ago. International observers said that election was rife with violations, and one European group declared it "a step backward" for democracy.

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