Even before official presidential vote results...

Congratulations for the presumed winner piled pressure on his bitter rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, to concede defeat.

A leader of the "orange revolution" protests that swept President Viktor Yushchenko to power in 2005, Tymoshenko looks set for a new power struggle with pro-Moscow Yanukovych, whose election victory was overturned over vote rigging five years ago.

The start of Yushchenko"s presidency saw the orange camp hailed by Western powers as the dawn of real democracy in the former Soviet state. But five years on, after protracted political in-fighting, there is little sign of the enthusiasm for all things orange.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Yanukovych on Thursday to congratulate him on winning Sunday"s presidential runoff. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and European Union President Herman Van Rompuy sent a message to Yanukovych on Friday.

The leaders of Germany and France hailed the election as democratic in their congratulations

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