KIEV, November 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine is planning to announce an amnesty for economic crimes and tax evasion both for legal entities and private individuals, according to President Viktor Yushchenko.

“A corresponding decree is being drafted,” he said late on Thursday in a televised question-and-answer conference with students.

“It is necessary to design a mechanism of such an amnesty regarding tax and other economic violations,” he said and specified “the mechanism should foresee a one-time declaration of property and money and a ban on state checks of the legal entities and private individuals for the period covered by the amnesty”.

Yushchenko also denied allegations of political persecutions of the opposition.

“I am ready to sign with my blood (a statement) that if any such fact is established those guilty will be punished,” he said.

‘We must have one state, one Ukraine,” Yushchenko said and called on various political forces to sit at the negotiating table so that the 2006 parliamentary election be held democratically and without any falsifications.