Ukraine's president-elect Viktor Yanukovych named on Sunday three candidates for the prime ministerial post.

Opposition leader Yanukovych, who won the February 7 presidential election runoff in the ex-Soviet state by 3.48% against his rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said he is considering ex-National banker Sergei Tigipko, ex-parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Nikolai Azarov, a leader of Yanukovych's Party of Regions, for the post.

Tigipko was in third place in the January 17 election's first round dominated by Yanukovych and Tymoshenko who later clashed in the runoff.

"The final choice will be made later, when a coalition of deputy factions in the Supreme Rada is formed," Yanukovych was quoted as saying by the Unian news agency.

Yanukovych has said Tymoshenko cannot stay on her current post.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission on February 14 officially declared Yanukovych the winner of the presidential election. His inauguration has been scheduled for February 25.

The final obstacle to Yanukovych's inauguration was removed on Saturday when Tymoshenko, his rival in the runoff refusing to concede her defeat, unexpectedly withdrew a legal appeal contesting the runoff results.

Tymoshenko appealed the election results in Ukraine's Supreme Administrative Court on Tuesday. The court then suspended the Central Election Commission's official announcement of Yanukovych's runoff victory.