Ukrainian Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko has said President Viktor Yushchenko was deliberately poisoned when he was running for president.

"The deliberate poisoning of the candidate for the presidential post took place. There was an attempt on his life using dioxin. A medical examination, as well as the questioning of witnesses, has proved this," Medvedko told journalists on Friday in Kyiv, answering a question of a correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The prosecutor general said that, unfortunately, the department couldn't say now that "the criminals have been found and brought to account."

Medvedko said this is the reason why "politicians and MPs say from time to time that the criminal case is not being investigated and that there is a falsification of the factors om the poisoning."

"The case is being investigated in accordance with the acting legislation. All versions of events are being considered," Medvedko said.

The prosecutor general noted that all of the versions of events of the poisoning were being examined, including a possibility of poisoning via food, and poisoning as a result of cosmetic operations and after the use of stem cells.

"We have examined these possibilities. They weren't confirmed," he said.

As reported, on September 5, 2004, then presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko was taken ill after having dinner with the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine. He was hospitalized in Vienna on September 10. Doctors said Yushchenko had been poisoned with dioxin. Moreover, they said the poison had been administered five days before his hospitalization.

After that, a number of medical tests were conducted. An examination conducted late in May 2006 confirmed the presence of dioxin in Yushchenko's body.