KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's Supreme Court met today to consider appeals of bitterly disputed presidential election results, a day after two rivals who both claim victory agreed they would abide by the court's ruling.

Amid the tense electoral standoff, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma left for Moscow today to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

Kuchma and Putin planned to hold political consultations, Interfax said, citing Kuchma's press secretary Olena Hromnytska. A man who answered the phone at Kuchma's office said he could not confirm the report.

Kuchma has proposed holding new presidential elections as a way out of the political crisis that has engulfed Ukraine since the Nov. 21 presidential runoff. Kuchma's hand-picked candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, was declared the official winner, but opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, a Western-leaning reformer, claims his victory was stolen by fraud.

The Kremlin has backed Yanukovych, who was considered pro-Russian.

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations member states voiced support for Secretary-General Kofi Annan after a U.S. senator called for him to resign over possible fraud in Iraq's oil-for-food program. The State Department endorsed a Senate investigation of the troubled program but sidestepped the issue of Annan's future.Sen. Norm Coleman, who is leading one of five U.S. congressional investigations into the U.N. oil-for-food program, wrote in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal that Annan should step down because "the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch."The Minnesota Republican joined several U.S. newspapers and columnists in urging that Annan be replaced.State Department spokesman Adam Ereli backed the congressional investigations but sidestepped the issue of Annan's resignation, saying "that is not something, frankly, that is in front of us."Outside of Coleman's call, the secretary-general appears to retain wide support among the 191 U.N. member states who elected him to a second five-year term in 2001.Russia, Britain, Chile, Spain and other nations on the U.N. Security Council strongly backed Annan in recent days, as did non-council members. The 54 African nations sent a letter of support."He has heard no calls for resignation from any member state," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters when asked whether he envisioned Annan's stepping down. "If there's some agitation on this issue on the sidelines ... that's healthy debate. But he is intent on continuing his substantive work for the remaining two years and one month of his term."