Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday dropped her legal challenge to her rival's presidential election victory, saying she had lost faith in the country's courts.

Her dramatic backdown after a pledge just the day before to fight till the end was the latest twist in Tymoshenko's tortuous struggle to hold on to power and sent rivals and observers guessing what her next move will be.

Viktor Yanukovych's supporters celebrated Tymoshenko's legal defeat, gloating that nerves had failed the steely politician known for her perfect composure.

"It remains for us to prepare for February 25 when the new president will take his oath," Olexander Lavrinovich, first deputy speaker of parliament, who represented Yanukovych in the court, told reporters.

Tymoshenko said she had asked the court to drop her complaint because she did not see any sense in further proceedings.

"It has become obvious that it is not a court and it is not justice," said the flamboyant premier, wearing a grey dress, her trademark golden braid wrapped around her head.

After several hours of deliberations, judge Olexander Nechitailo saying the court would leave Tymoshenko's lawsuit without consideration.

'Emotional state'

"Tymoshenko's emotional state didn't allow her to concede defeat," said Lavrinovich. "So as not to wait for what the court has to say, she said it herself in a peculiar manner."

Shortly after Tymoshenko asked the court to drop her challenge, Ukraine's outgoing president Viktor Yushchenko congratulated Yanukovych on his election, saying his main task was to heal rifts in a deeply divided country.

The hugely unpopular Yuschenko, an ally-turned-foe of Tymoshenko, expressed hope that the new president would do his best to implement his "main mission" which he said was "the consolidation of Ukraine."

Yanukovych's election presented an opportunity to bring the pro-Western, Ukrainian-speaking west and pro-Moscow, Russian-speaking east of the country closer together, Yushchenko said, according to his office.

Tymoshenko's camp, meanwhile, vowed to continue the fight against all odds.

Andriy Kozhemyakin, a top official with Tymoshenko's party, said the party would soon convene to decide on her next move but she was unlikely to turn to the courts again.

"Turning this into a show and hearing out judges' refusals does not make sense," he told AFP . "If the government is dismissed, we will work in opposition."

Caught by surprise

In parliament, Yanukovych's party has launched an official motion to throw out Tymoshenko and her government.

At Tymoshenko's request, the supreme administrative court had suspended the final results handing the presidency to Yanukovych while it heard her suit claiming the February 7 election was rigged.

Lavrinovich told reporters the court's Saturday ruling had revoked the earlier decision suspending the final results.

Tymoshenko's sudden end to her short-lived legal bid to force Yanukovych into a third round caught most observers, who had expected a protracted judicial battle, by surprise.

Just at the start of hearings on Friday, Tymoshenko, who wore a funereal black dress, had vowed to fight till the end as she appealed for justice.

She had presented the court with nine volumes of evidence, seeking to repeat the success of 2004 when courts overturned Yanukovych's victory and ordered a new poll which he lost.

Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko by around 3.5 percent, or just under 890,000 votes, according to final official results.

Western leaders including US President Barack Obama have already congratulated Yanukovych on his victory, which heralds a return to a more pro-Russia outlook for Ukraine from the pro-Western stance ushered in by the 2004 Orange Revolution.

- AFP