New Year's Eve address to the nation came as his first significant concession since Sunday's vote.<BR>
"We are still fighting, but I don't have much hope," Yanukovych said. "I will act as an independent politician, as the rightful winner of the legitimate Nov. 21 election."<BR>
Yanukovych claimed victory in that vote, but hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flooded Kiev's streets to protest against massive fraud. After weeks of protests dubbed the "Orange Revolution" because of Yushchenko's campaign color, the court ruled that the election was corrupted, annulled Yanukovych's victory and ordered Sunday's revote.<BR>
Yanukovych has seen much of his support fall away since, losing the backing of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and watching as many of his top advisers desert him. Parliament passed a vote of no-confidence in his government onis "hopeless."<BR>
"There is his pride. He didn't want to submit his resignation documents to newly elected President Yushchenko, he decided to submit them to President Kuchma," he said.<BR>
Meanwhile, Saakashvili, who was catapulted to power last year in a bloodless revolution that inspired the Ukrainian opposition, made his first stop in Kiev at the opposition's tent camp on Kiev's tree-lined main street. He has displayed his support for Yushchenko by regularly wearing an orange tie.<BR>