Ukraine leader: New vote possible
 |  Ukrainian Supreme Court meets in Kiev Monday to consider the allegations of election fraud. |
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 Candidates in Ukraine's disputed presidential vote meet face-to-face.
 A strong organization supports the thousands demonstrating in the streets of Kiev.
 How Russia's President Putin and the EU see the crisis.
 The U.S. has a significant stake in what is happening in Ukraine.
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KIEV, Ukraine (CNN) -- Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has said a new vote may be the only way to settle the country's escalating presidential election crisis.
Kuchma's comments came Monday as the country's Supreme Court began reviewing allegations of election fraud.
"If we really want to build a rule of law and democratic society, which we have been speaking about so much, let us hold a new election," the president told a group of regional leaders meeting outside the capital Kiev, the Russian press agency ITAR-Tass reported.
Kuchma, who has repeatedly warned both sides to avoid bloodshed, said the continued crisis threatened Ukraine's economic stability.
It wasn't immediately clear what effect Kuchma's statement would have on the crisis, in which eastern provinces are threatening to seek autonomy and tens of thousands of opposition supporters have blocked government buildings in Kiev for several days.
Liberal opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko wants the Supreme Court to annul the victory of his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, in the November 21 runoff and order a new vote to take place on December 12.
But if the country's most senior judges rule in favor of Yanukovych, he would be inaugurated as president.
The court could take up to several days to declare its ruling on the hundreds of serious complaints lodged by Yushchenko, an official said after the court convened Monday.
The court has given Yanukovych's team and officials from the Central Election Commission until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Tuesday to examine case documents.
Thousands of supporters of both sides rallied outside the Supreme Court building and watched proceedings on giant television screens.
CNN's Jill Dougherty said the Supreme Court was under political pressure but its rulings have often been at odds with the authorities.
Dougherty said the opposition party's lawyers displayed papers in court that they said proved up to 11,000 cases of fraud took place. They said the electoral commission consequently should never have ratified the results.
Initially, the court refused to hear Yushchenko's case. But last Friday it delayed Yanukovych's inauguration by barring official publication of the results until it had examined the dispute.
Yanukovych said Monday he would accept a new vote if allegations of fraud were proven.
So far, the election crisis has been peaceful.
Tens of thousands of Yushchenko supporters braved the streets of Kiev for an eighth straight day of protests Monday, living in tents thrown up on Independence Square to escape the cold, fog and snow.
In separate speeches Sunday, Ukraine's presidential rivals told thousands of their supporters that violence would only hurt their causes.
Yushchenko defied Kuchma's earlier call for the protests to end and urged his supporters to maintain "peaceful protests ... here until the end."
In eastern Ukraine, where the prime minister's support is strongest, Yanukovych also preached peaceful protest.
"I call on you not to take any radical steps," he said. "I repeat -- none. As soon as the first drop of blood spills, we won't be able to stop that flow."
Meanwhile, an eastern region backing Yanukovych -- who has the support of Moscow -- set a referendum for December 5 on forming a republic within a federal Ukrainian state, Reuters reported Sunday.
The council in Donetsk region in the Donbass coalfield voted 156-1 to stage the vote in response to efforts to overturn Yanukovych's official victory.
His supporters in the industrialized east have sought to counter opposition in Ukraine's west by threatening to split from the central government and stop transferring tax payments to its coffers.
Also Monday, the chairman of the central bank said he was resigning to concentrate on Yanukovych's campaign.
"At the moment, I believe it is impossible to combine the jobs of central bank chairman and party chief," Serhiy Tyhypko told a news conference.
"I am therefore resigning as central bank chairman in order to devote my time to political work."
'Greatest story'
Ukraine's Central Election Commission declared Yanukovych the winner of the runoff vote and Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick last week to congratulate him.
However, Yushchenko said the vote was stolen -- and international election observers agreed.
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who served as an election monitor in Ukraine, said the battle was "perhaps the greatest story in the world right now, largely because it is about the space of freedom (and) whether it's going to expand or not."
"And in this particular election, the government of President Kuchma allowed, or aided and abetted, wholesale fraud and abuse that changed the results of the election," Lugar told "Fox News Sunday."
International observers, who were at almost half of the 33,000 polling stations, "detailed point by point all of the absentee fraud," Lugar said. "And so, Yanukovych did not win the election."
Yushchenko, Yanukovych and Kuchma held negotiations Friday and Saturday in search of a resolution but apparently found little common ground. On Sunday, Kuchma called for an end to the protests and said Yushchenko exhibited ill-will by not joining him.
"It is clearly understandable that negotiations are extremely difficult," Kuchma said. "It is hard to recognize what compromise can be reached, but I think, and others agree with me, that a compromise is necessary for Ukraine."
On Saturday, the Ukrainian parliament passed nonbinding measures backing an annulment of the election, dissolution of the 15-member Central Election Commission and calling for new elections.
CNN's Jill Dougherty, Max Tkachenko and Ryan Chilcote contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
