Tens of thousands of opposition protesters tonight marched on the presidential palace, to enforce their candidate's 'victory' in Ukraine's disputed presidential election.

As riot police massed in the side streets, the protesters formed an orderly column and obeyed instructions to march.

"We are going to go to the presidential administration in a peaceful way, without breaking anything. And either they will give up their power, or we will take it," said Yulia Tymoshenko, who heads a parliamentary faction backing Viktor Yushchenko.

“Once we arrive at the presidency, we won’t leave until Yushchenko enters it as the new Ukrainian president, and occupies his post,” she added.

Mr Yushchenko - who officially lost the vote by about three per cent - stood by as Ms Tymoshenko exhorted the demonstrators in Kiev’s Independence Square.

Earlier he declared himself president, taking a symbolic oath of office in the Ukraine parliament building, as 200,000 supporters flooded central Kiev. The Ukrainian capital was one of several cities brought to a standstill by the second day of protest, over the results of an election that Western electoral observers said was rigged in favour of the Russian-backed Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovich.

As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians rallied in the country's major cities, Mr Yushchenko warned MPs: "Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict. We have two choices: either the answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an answer."

But an emergency session of parliament was not able to pass a vote of no-confidence in the electoral commission since only 191 parliamentarians turned up, less than the 226 required to have a quorum.

Yuschenko supporters had camped out overnight in central Kiev despite sub-zero temperatures. They waved flags and wore clothes that bore the orange of his campaign.

Thousands of demonstrators, many of them students, gathered in Lviv, Mr Yuschenko's western stronghold, as protests grew. The demonstrators occupied Freedom Avenue, near the Lviv opera house, and shouted "Yushchenko president!"

After the emergency session of parliament, Mr Yuschenko swore an oath of office on a 300-year-old Bible. The Ukrainian constitution stipulates that an incoming president should swear his allegiance on a copy of the constitution itself.

"Bravo, Mr President!" Yuschenko's supporters in parliament cried out.

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