Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has accepted Viktor Yanukovych's resignation from the post of prime minister, the presidential press service said Wednesday.

Kuchma in the mean time has appointed First Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov acting head of the Ukrainian government.

Kuchma's announcement came five days after Yanokovych, who has refused to admit defeat in the Dec. 26 presidential rerun vote, said in a televised New Year Eve address on Dec. 31 that he has decided to quit the post.

Yanukovych won a disputed Nov. 21 presidential run-off, triggering a weeks-long protest by rival Viktor Yushchenko's supporters. The Supreme Court later annulled the election results after the Yushchenko team filed an appeal demanding that the vote be declared invalid due to massive fraud.

The court also ruled for a re-vote of the Nov. 21 run-off to beheld on Dec. 26.

According to the preliminary results of the Dec. 26 presidential election released by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), the opposition leader Yushchenko won the election with 51.99 percent of the vote against Yanukovych's 44.19 percent.

The CEC has said it would publish the offical final election results soon.

Yanukovych has been Ukraine's prime minister since November 2002.