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Ukraine's defeated presidential election candidate Yulia Tymoshenko will challenge results of the bitterly contested polls, aides said on Tuesday, rejecting calls on her to ease tensions by conceding defeat.

Breaking a day of silence after her defeat to Viktor Yanukovych in Sunday's vote, aides said the prime minister's party would be contesting results in some areas and could then even challenge the overall outcome.

Tymoshenko -- famed for her golden hair braid and stylish image -- has disappeared from public view since the results were published and has made no comment since a short address after exit polls. Related article: US praises Ukraine vote

Amid fears that Ukraine is heading for another protracted bout of political turmoil, international observers have praised the election and called for the results to be accepted.

The pro-Russia Yanukovych won by a narrow margin of just over three percent after voters rejected the pro-Western leaders of the Orange Revolution five years ago.

Tymoshenko's team had twice cancelled press conferences Monday but promised she would speak on Tuesday although there was still no sign of her breaking cover.

The deputy head of the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) party, Olena Shustik, said a decision to contest some results had been taken at a meeting of the faction late Monday. Profile Yulia Tymoshenko

She said they would first demand a recount of the vote in some areas and then take the issue to the courts.

"If the result in the courts is positive, we will question the overall result," she said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"We will do everything to prove that this election was falsified," added BYuT MP Sergiy Sobolev.

Another BYuT MP, Andriy Shkil, said the party would only acknowledge Yanukovych as the winner "if we fail to prove in courts the violations that caused the victory of Yanukovych."

He said the complaints would be looking in particular at the votes of one million people who had cast their ballots at home. Profile: Viktor Yanukovych

Independent Internet newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda said Tymoshenko had announced at the closed party meeting that she would never acknowledge Yanukovych's victory.

"I will never acknowledge the legitimacy of the victory of Yanukovych with such elections," she said according to the site's unnamed source.

Yanukovych's Regions Party has also bussed in hundreds of supporters from its eastern strongholds to rally outside the central election commission, in an apparent bid to ensure the results stand.

Tymoshenko's campaign has long complained of dirty tricks by her opponent but international observers praised the election as impressive and the European Union said it was ready to work with Yanukovych.

The US embassy in Kiev issued a statement praising the elections as a consolidation of democracy in the country but made no mention of Yanukovych.

In Moscow however, the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev had congratulated Yanukovych in a phone call.

The Russian president "congratulated V. Yanukovych on the completion of an election campaign highly rated by international observers and on the success achieved in the presidential elections," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Kremlin move was symbolically important as it was then-president Vladimir Putin's congratulations of Yanukovych in the 2004 presidential election that helped spark Ukraine's Orange Revolution.

That election result was annulled by Ukraine's supreme court on evidence of massive electoral fraud, paving the way for the election in January 2005 of staunchly pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko.

The latest election result marked a stunning turnaround for Yanukovych. Official results from 99.94 percent of polling stations showed Yanukovych won 48.94 percent of the vote, compared to Tymoshenko's 45.48 percent.

Another 4.4 percent of ballots were cast "against all" in a sign of the disillusionment five years after the Orange Revolution. Some 1.2 percent of ballots were spoiled.

AFP