KIEV, Jan 23: Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in Ukraine's president on Sunday and vowed to steer the country toward the West, capping a popular revolt and a bitter months-long fight over the destiny of a nation historically entwined with Russia.

"Our place is in the European Union," Mr Yushchenko told crowds in Kiev's central Independence Square after taking the oath of office of a nation that has for centuries been under Russian influence.

"My goal is Ukraine in a united Europe. Our road to the future is the road of a united Europe," he told several hundreds of thousands of people who crammed into the plaza, the epicentre of the "orange revolution" that brought him to power.

He also appealed to voters who supported his Moscow-friendly rival during an election saga that split the nation in two deeply polarized camps. "I am the president of all of Ukraine," he said. "My victory is a victory for everyone."

Earlier inside parliament, the 50-year-old former central banker Yushchenko read aloud the oath of office with his right hand placed on the constitution and the Bible and hailed the mass popular protests against a fraudulent election that got him to the spot.

The chamber erupted into chants of "Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!," the battle cry of the "orange" protests, as he finished, crossed himself and kissed the books. Mr Yushchenko became the third president of an independent Ukraine. -AFP