16,000 checked in Ukraine after accident

Authorities have checked 16,000 people for symptoms of chemical poisoning following a train derailment that ignited tankers loaded with yellow phosphorous in western Ukraine, the health minister said Friday.

Doctors examined thousands of emergency workers and residents in the Lviv region, where the fire belched clouds of toxic gas, said the minister, Yuriy Haydayev. More than 180 people remained hospitalized Friday, including 34 children.

Not everyone hospitalized had serious symptoms, Haydayev said.

"We hospitalized all children who feel discomfort in their eyes or throats, at their parents' insistence, but this does not mean they were poisoned," he said.

No deaths were reported.

The accident occurred Monday when a freight train derailed outside Lviv, near the Polish border, overturning 15 of 58 cars.

Six tanker cars containing yellow phosphorus caught fire, sending noxious fumes over 35 square miles.

Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovsky said pressure valves were broken on the aging tankers, which should have been decommissioned five years ago. He said Ukraine has suspended rail shipments of yellow phosphorus.

President Viktor Yushchenko has criticized the government of his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, over its response, suggesting officials deliberately understated the health threat.

Yushchenko interrupted his vacation in Crimea on Friday to talk with residents and visit hospitals near the accident.

"In three to four days we will completely overcome this accident's consequences," Yushchenko told residents of Ozhydiv, one of more than a dozen affected villages.

Viktor Bondar, the presidential administration's deputy chief, said Yushchenko has called for the dismissal of Rudkovsky. The president "gave a clear signal that there is no place for such ministers in the Ukrainian government," Bondar said.

Officials said rescuers had righted three of 15 overturned tanker cars, and will transport them back to Kazakhstan, where they originated. Firefighters sprayed fire-suppressing foam on the damaged tankers to prevent new blazes. The move was agreed with Kazakhstan and Russia, through which they will pass, said Emergency Minister Nestor Shufrych.

Phosphorus compounds appear chiefly in fertilizers, although they are important components of pesticides, toothpaste and detergents, as well as explosives and fireworks.

About 50 million tons of cargo _ 70 percent of which include dangerous substances like chlorine, nitrogen, ammonia and petroleum products _ are transported by rail through Ukraine annually.

The chemical blaze and health threat have jolted Ukraine, where many still remember the 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of the health minister's name.)