KIEV (AFP) - Ukrainians voted for a new president in a bitterly-fought runoff election that will determine whether this strategic former Soviet republic turns toward Europe or remains in Moscow's orbit.
Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is battling for the president's job with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who is backed by Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and its giant neighbour Russia.
Kuchma, stepping down after 10 years of often strong-arm rule over this eastern European country of 48 million people, vowed there would be "no revolution" after the opposition threatened mass protests.
Ukraine's opposition has close ties to the pro-Western government in Georgia, which came to power one year ago after peaceful demonstrations forced out the Soviet-era leadership in the so-called "rose revolution."
Yushchenko has vowed to bring his supporters onto the streets if Kuchma's appointed heir, Yanukovich, is declared the winner fraudulently in Sunday's election, warning of large-scale vote-rigging.
A police officer was reported killed at a polling station in central Ukraine early in the day, underscoring the tense atmosphere surrounding the knife-edge poll. No details of the incident were immediately available.
Voting took place under tight security at 33,000 polling stations across the country, with exit polls due to be published right after the close of voting at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT), and official results expected early Monday.
An armed detachment of police equipped with armoured personnel carriers guarded the offices of the central electoral commission in Kiev, which was sealed off with temporary metal barriers.
Yanukovich voted early Sunday, accompanied by his wife, but declined to make any predictions. "I think that our people's reason and tolerance will always prevail," Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying.
The election has sparked intense rivalry between Washington and Moscow, as both seek to ensure their man wins the presidency in a country that the West sees as a buffer with an increasingly authoritarian Russia.
US President George W. Bush has served notice to Kuchma that the United States will take retaliatory measures if the presidential vote is not fair.
"A peaceful transfer of power to your successor will be in the interests of Ukraine, Europe and the entire world and will open new prospects for relations between our two countries," he said in a letter to Kuchma.
Although the United States has not declared open support for Yushchenko, its calls for a democratic vote amount to just that, as the first round on October 31 was slammed by international observers who said state media favoured the official candidate.
Russia, which under President Vladimir Putin has worked to restore Moscow's influence in much of the former Soviet Union, meanwhile is determined to keep its fellow-Slav neighbour in friendly hands.
Tension has risen in this country, deeply polarised by the clash between the rival visions of Ukraine's future. The two opponents both garnered around 40 percent of the vote in the first round.
Yushchenko, 50, a former reformist prime minister, is hugely popular in the nationalist Ukrainian-speaking west, while the 54-year-old Yanukovich draws his support from the heavily industrialised Russian-speaking east.
Yanukovich, who has promised to make Russian a second official language and allow dual citizenship, supports the formation of an economic union with Russia and two other major ex-Soviet states.
Yushchenko says he sees Ukraine's future in Europe and has set the goal of starting membership talks for the European Union and possibly even the Brussels-based NATO military alliance within three to five years.
"If Yushchenko wins, we will have real elections in five years' time. If he doesn't, you can forget about that for years to come," said Feodosy, a Kiev resident in his 40s, who added that he was ready to join the protests.
Some 37 million people are eligible to cast ballots in the runoff election, which is being observed by nearly 5,000 international monitors.

11/21/2004 - 11:39 GMT - AFP