WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhuanet) -- A team of US doctors secretly flew to Vienna in mid-December to help treat then-Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko for dioxin poisoning, The Washington Post said Friday.

    Quoting US officials and doctors involved in the process, The Washington Post said the involvement of US doctors in treating Yushchenko has been undisclosed until now largely because US officials and the doctors did not want to appear to interfere in the political drama of the Ukraine elections.

    Gregory Saathoff, who led the team of US doctors, said the US government was not involved in his team's work, but an unidentified senior US official told the Post that the operation began with a request from Yushchenko's family for assistance, via an official in the Pentagon, and the US State Department provided logistical support for the mission.

    The US ambassador to Ukraine, John E. Herbst, and the US Embassy in Vienna also provided assistance, The Washington Post quoted officials as saying. Enditem