Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych let go the reins of power due to illness.

The ageing president has signed off on sick leave. According to the presidential website Mr Yanukovych has an acute respiratory illness and high fever.

It gave no indication as to how long his leave would last.

Anti-government protests have spread across the Ukraine in recent days after being sparked in Kiev two months ago by Mr Yanukovych's U-turn on closer ties with the European Union.

News of his illness has un-leashed a wave of scepticism.

Political commentator Vitaly Portnikov recalled the 1991 announcement that renegade Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov was ill, which later turned out to be a failed coup by those opposed to his capitalist reforms.

But presidential spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Mr Yanukovych remained in charge of the country and could not transfer his powers to anyone else.

The government has offered a series of concessions to the loose-knit mob of protesters.

The hard-headed opposition has rejected offers of an amnesty law and says the prime minister and cabinet's resignation on Tuesday did not go far enough.

Communist MP Sergei Gordienko said the parliamentary opposition's rejection of an amnesty law showed that they were only interested in political power, not speeding up the release of detained activists.

"The opposition operates on the principle 'the worse, the better'," he said.

He repeated the Communist Party of Ukraine's call for a political, rather than military, way out of the conflict - urging that the extent of presidential powers, including getting rid of the presidency itself, should be put to a referendum as part of bringing government closer to the people.

The party has been critical of the demonstrations and the fascist loyalties of the most vocal protesters.

Self-proclaimed people's councils in western parts of the country have banned both Mr Yanukovych's Party of the Regions and the Communist Party.

The Justice Ministry said on Wednesday that the bans were illegal.

Donetsk regional Communist Party secretary Nikolai Kravchenko said that the bans showed that "extreme right-wing nationalists" were trying to get rid of political rivals before potential early elections.