Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has accepted Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk's resignation, the presidential press office said in a statement on Tuesday.

President Yushchenko considered Tarasyuk's decision a responsible step, said the statement, adding that Volodymyr Ohryzko, Tarasyuk's deputy, had been appointed as acting foreign minister.

The foreign minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday after a month-long battle with the government reined by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych was authorized by a motion passed by the Ukrainian parliament on Dec. 1, 2006 to sack Tarasyuk, and has since kept him from cabinet meetings.

Tarasyuk, however, challenged the parliamentary move in court and won a ruling in his favor. But earlier this month an appeals court nullified the court's decision, saying the case should be reconsidered.

Tarasyuk took office in February 2005. In August 2006, after being nominated by the president, he managed to win the parliamentary approval and remained in the cabinet headed by Yanukovych.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)