KIEV, Nov 27: Ukraine's opposition won a symbolic victory in its battle over the disputed presidential election on Saturday after parliament declared results from the vote invalid in a non-binding resolution.

As thousands of orange-clad, boisterous supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko massed outside, the parliament passed a resolution that said results of the Nov 21 poll, which handed victory to pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, were invalid.

The vote came two days before Ukraine's supreme court begins hearing the opposition's appeal over the election, which it claims the government helped rig in favour of its candidate.

Mr Yanukovich cannot be inaugurated president until the high court issues its ruling.

"The supreme court wouldn't dare to recognize as valid the results of the presidential election after our vote," Socialist Party chief Oleksandr Moroz, who backed opposition's Yushchenko in last Sunday's poll, said after Saturday's vote.

After three hours of debate, the deputies also called on outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to disband the central election commission and appealed on supporters of the two rivals to refrain from violence during the ever-growing protests over an election that has split the country into two polarized camps.

Ukraine's opposition has staged massive round-the-clock rallies for the six days since the vote and demonstrations in support of Mr Yanukovich have picked up in the past couple of days, fanning fears that this nation of 48 million people could break apart.

At a rally in the eastern city of Donetsk, a Yanukovich stronghold, authorities warned that they would seek more autonomy if Mr Yushchenko becomes president.

"If someone tries to ignore our opinion then we will lawfully turn to the option of a referendum to change the (regional) constitution and make our region self-sufficient," Anatoly Bliznyuk, the governor of the Donetsk region, told the cheering crowd.

The warnings came after several cities in the opposition-dominated west declared Mr Yushchenko the elected president and said they would only obey his orders.

Late on Friday the two rivals failed to resolve the crisis in their first meeting since the election, also attended by Mr Kuchma and European and Russian mediators.-AFP