Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday set February 25 as the date for the inauguration of president-elect Viktor Yanukovch, despite a planned court challenge by the election's loser, DPA reported.
A thin 238-member majority in the 450-seat Ukrainian legislature approved a bill setting the inauguration date.
Yanukovych, a pro-Russia politician closely allied with big business, is set to replace Viktor Yushchenko, a pro-Europe politician whose re-election bid failed because of widespread voter dissatisfaction with the economy, corruption and botched reforms.
Yanukovych, 59, would become Ukraine's fourth president since the former Soviet state became independent in 1991.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's opponent in a February 7 election run-off, has vowed a court challenge to Yanukovych's right to become president, citing what she has called fraudulent voting.
Yanukovych obtained 48.95 per cent of ballots cast against Tymoshenko's 45.47 per cent in the national election.
In a television address Saturday, Tymoshenko said that Yanukovych owes his polling victory to massive election fraud, particularly in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. But international observers have largely judged the vote to have been free and fair.
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