Ukraine leader pledges reforms

Kiev - In his first reaction to Sunday's victory over the Communist Party leader, Mr Petro Symonenko, President Leonid Kuchma vowed to accelerate reforms which have hardly left the starting block since he was first elected in 1994. His Communist challenger put on a brave face and charged that the vote was rigged. Preliminary results showed Mr Kuchma won 56.31 per cent of the vote against Mr Symonenko's 37.76 per cent.