A Ukrainian high court yesterday rejected an appeal by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko against her conviction for abuse of office, leaving her in jail and Ukraine's relations with the West severely strained.

Tymoshenko's lawyer said the ruling by three judges had been steered by President Viktor Yanukovich for political reasons.

"These findings have no relation to justice," Serhiy Vlasenko said. "This is a decision of Yanukovich to keep Tymoshenko in prison."

Western leaders condemned the seven-year prison term meted out to the 51-year-old opposition leader in October as political persecution, and blocked strategic agreements on political association and a free-trade zone with the European Union.

President Yanukovich did not react to Mr Vlasenko's comments, though in tough remarks last Friday he said he would not negotiate integration with the EU at the price of allowing it to interfere in her case.

In Brussels, the EU urged Ukraine to reform its judicial system "to redress the effects of selective justice".

"We stress the importance for the Ukrainian authorities to take concrete steps to address the systemic problems of the judiciary," a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said.

Tymoshenko was not in court because of persistent back trouble which has kept her confined to a state-run hospital in eastern Ukraine.

About 300 of her supporters gathered outside the courtroom, chanting slogans such as "Yulia – Freedom!" and "Keep convicts inside and get Yulia out!" They lowered a mock coffin into the ground outside the courtroom to symbolise the death of justice.