KIEV, Nov. 8 - President Viktor Yushchenko, in a television interview aired Sunday, said there was no reason for declaring an emergency in Ukraine in reaction to the swine flu epidemic that sweeps the country.

The comment eases political tensions that came after two officials recently suggested that a state of emergency could be declared resulting in postponing the next presidential election for four months.

“There are no such reasons,” Yushchenko said in the interview with Channel 5 when asked if there were reasons for declaring the emergency. “I am not a supporter of measures that freeze the country, restrict its operation to levels that is hard to justify.”

Yushchenko criticized Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for taking too strict measures in the regions affected by the flu epidemic as inadequate, while also using the epidemic to score political points.

The government shut down schools and public gatherings for three weeks, and has been seriously considering measures that would restrict movement of people from one region to another.

“It’s clear that not only Ukraine goes through the epidemic,” Yushchenko said. “I would really want that steps taken by the government be adequate to the challenge.”

“What is currently being done by effectively freezing life in the regions - and that policy unfortunately may expand - I believe one must be more delicate while taking the restrictive steps,” Yushchenko said.

Ihor Popov, a deputy chief of staff at the Yushchenko office, in an article published by Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper, said that in case of emergency the election, which is due on Jan. 17, 2010, would have to be “rescheduled.”

“In the event of the emergency during the next two months, the new date for the election may fall on May 30 to coincide with local elections that will by the way save one billions hryvnias for the country,” Popov said. “Simultaneous elections make the work of election commissions more difficult, but one has to save during the economic crisis.”

Raisa Bohatyriova, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, the top security body under the president, said last week that there are reasons for the emergency in Ukraine.

The speculations over the emergency come as more than 130 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands were sickened by the flu over the past three weeks in western regions of Ukraine, while the epidemic has been spreading towards the eastern regions.

Yushchenko said that Tymoshenko has been using the epidemic for self promotion ahead of the election, including in televised reports of going to an airport in the middle of the night to make sure that an airplane with medicine has arrived.

“The flue has become of the PR exercises of the presidential election campaign,” Yushchenko said. “This fuss, these daily flights, these constant meetings from morning till night, and when these meeting are televised to 46 million people - it’s ridiculous.”

“When we talk about the panic, I believe that it is the government’s activity that is panicking and is creating a hyperbolized reaction to the problem,” Yushchenko said.

Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former parliamentary speaker and Tymoshenko’s biggest rival for votes in western regions of Ukraine, had last week accused the government of overreacting to the outbreak of swine flue to give the prime minister a competitive advantage. (tl/ez)