Ukraine opposition rejects government concessions A protester uses tear gas against riot police during clashes in Chernihiv, about 150km north of Kiev. Kiev: Protest leaders have vowed to press ahead with demonstrations, despite a power-sharing offer by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Mr Yanukovych offered top opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko the posts of prime minister and deputy prime minister in a proposed compromise deal aimed at ending the former Soviet republic's worst post-independence crisis. Speaking to tens of thousands packed into the protest hub of Independence Square in Kiev, Mr Yatsenyuk and other opposition leaders were careful to neither explicitly reject nor accept the deal. A priest prays in front of riot police during clashes with anti-government protesters in Kiev. We are not scared of responsibility for the future of Ukraine. We take responsibility and are ready to take the country into the European Union," Mr Yatsenyuk said. We do not believe any one of their words. We believe in action. World boxing champion Klitschko, leader of the UDAR (Punch) party, said the opposition would press for a presidential election due in 2015 to be brought forward to this year. Ukraine opposition leader Vitaliy Klitschko speaks to anti-government protestors from a stage in Independence Square, Kiev. Yanukovych agreed to many of our demands ... Talks will continue," said Klitschko, who along with the other opposition leaders earlier held three hours of talks with Mr Yanukovych. A week of clashes between protesters and security forces has raised fears of a prolonged civil conflict, and according to officials has already left three dead. The Ukrainian presidency said after the talks that the two sides had agreed that the protests and the police presence in Kiev would be gradually scaled down, but there was no sign of an easing of tensions on Independence Square. A burnt truck is seen at the site of clashes between anti-government protester and riot police in Kiev. "Our fight continues!" nationalist leader Oleg Tyagnybok said, haranguing tens of thousands of cheering protesters surrounded by barricades on the square. Mr Yanukovych also said he was willing to consider constitutional changes that would reduce the huge powers he has built up and return to a political system that gives the prime minister more authority. The president agreed to another key demand of the opposition, saying he would put a bill to parliament that would give amnesty to those arrested during the protests and political crisis. He also promised to consider changes to draconian anti-protest laws passed by parliament on January 16 sparking the latest crisis. But the protesters in Independence Square said they were sceptical and the opposition appeared to be looking ahead to a parliament session on Tuesday where some of their demands could be addressed. "I don't think Yanukovych's proposal will change the situation," said Miron Kotsuba, a driver from the western city of Lviv. People will not accept the result of negotiations without Yanukovych's resignation. There is no confidence in these authorities," he said. Iryna Pavlenko, a student from Kiev, said: "It is absurd when the authorities give us a condition for going out of the crisis after all that they have done." "It is terrible to think of military actions but my friends are in decisive mood," she said. The protests first erupted in response to Mr Yanukovych's refusal to sign a key deal with the European Union in November. But they have snowballed into anti-government protests against Mr Yanukovych's four-year rule, which the opposition claims has been riddled with corruption and nepotism. While the government says only three people have died during the unrest, the opposition puts the death toll at six.