Ukraine leader diverts plane, fights fire

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko diverted his plane to join crews battling a forest fire that has been raging for three days and demanded the resignation of the minister responsible for public safety.

Television footage showed Yushchenko, gearing up for a parliamentary election next month, picking up a shovel on Tuesday, heaving sand on onto smoldering woodland and straining to help firefighters push a vehicle out of a bog.

The president, long at odds with a government led by his arch rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, was returning to Kiev from southern Ukraine when he spotted a long plume of smoke. He ordered the pilot to change course and land.

A statement from the president's office said Yushchenko had "personally taken control of firefighting and rescue efforts" and accused Emergencies Minister Nestor Shufrych of misleading the public on efforts to bring the fire under control.

"The minister has displayed total incompetence and is completely uninformed," presidential chief of staff Viktor Baloga said.

"The president demands that the prime minister review whether N. Shufrych should remain in his job. Incompetent and unprofessional individuals have no place in government."

Officials said more than 600 people, including residents, were still battling the blaze in Kherson region on Wednesday.

The president has been critical of the government's handling of a series of emergencies, including the derailment last month of a train carrying phosphorus, which sparked a fire and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

Yushchenko beat Yanukovich in the rerun of a rigged 2004 election after weeks of "Orange Revolution" rallies, but Yanukovich made a comeback and became prime minister last year.

A long struggle for power prompted the president to dissolve parliament and call a new parliamentary election. Polls show the contest is unlikely to produce much change with Yanukovich's Regions Party leading but allies of the president close behind.