KIEV, Nov 21: Pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won Ukraine's presidential runoff election on Sunday, comfortably beating pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, an independent exit poll showed.

Mr Yushchenko got 58 per cent of the vote, compared to 39 per cent for Yanukovich, according to the exit poll by the Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies and the Kiev International Institute for Sociology (KMIS).

Another exit poll carried out by the government-linked polling agencies Socis and Socsmonitoring showed a much more narrow Yushchenko victory, ahead at 49.4 per cent compared to Yanukovich's 45.9 per cent, Interfax reported.

Mr Yushchenko, a 50-year-old former reformist prime minister, has promised gradual integration with the West, setting the goal of eventual membership of the European Union and perhaps the US-led NATO military alliance.

Mr Yanukovich, 54, a former regional boss from the industrialized Russian-speaking east who is the appointed successor of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, favours close ties with neighbouring Russia. -AFP