Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's prime minister, has attacked the country's president-elect in her first public appearance since refusing to concede defeat in the Sunday's run-off election for the post. 

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Tymoshenko, who has refused to concede defeat despite official results giving Viktor Yanukovych victory by 3.5 per cent, criticised her rival for not keeping election promises on public sector salaries and pensions.

"Today it is clear that no one from the Yanukovych team is intending to raise social standards. This was just PR," Tymoshenko told the cabinet meeting.

"Already after the elections, the deceptions of the campaign are starting up again and people need to take this into account in their future political decisions," she said.

The last public comments by Tymoshenko had been on Sunday night after the publication of exit polls.

Resignation call

Yanukovych has twice called on Tymoshenko to resign her post as prime minister, but a senior aide on Thursday said her government had no intention of stepping down.

Borys Kolesnikov, Yanukovych's election campaign manager, said earlier that if Tymoshenko did not resign, she would be dismissed and a new prime minister would be found.

If Yanukovych was unable to form a coalition in parliament, he would have to call a snap parliamentary election.

Ukraine's central election commission said on Wednesday that Yanukovych had won 48.95 per cent of the vote in the pesidential poll, compared to Tymoshenko's 45.47 per cent.

Although official, the results are still preliminary and must be formally certified by the commission this month.

Tymoshenko's team has claimed widespread violations took place during voting, particularly in Yanukovych's eastern Ukraine strongholds, but international observers hailed the vote as a fair and clean.

The political standoff threatens to cause further disruption to the government which has repeatedly been paralysed by infighting.

It could also delay the resumption of International Monetary Fund lending which last year was crucial for the state's finances but was suspended because of broken promises of fiscal restraint.