ODESSA, May 10. /TASS/. Acting deputy head of the Odessa Regional Administration Maria Gaidar has tendered her resignation. She declared the move at a rally where representatives of nationalist groups urged her to step down.

At first Gaidar tried to enter into a dialogue with protesters in front of the regional administration building. She invited the demonstrators to the negotiating table and declared she was prepared to hear their criticism.

The nationalists rejected the proposal and demanded she should write a resignation statement right away and leave Ukraine.

Gaidar said, "I’m leaving this post. I don’t stick to it. I’ve written a resignation statement."

She added, though, that she was not going to leave Ukraine and remained determined to work as an aide to Odessa Governor Mikheil Saakahsvili.

"I can say that I’ve been doing my job properly. In the health service my efforts yielded an extra 100 million of budget money. All payments have been dispatched. I believe that this tone of discussion is absolutely impermissible and out of place. The due payments have been made already. I will remain Saakashvili’s aide," she said, adding that Saakashvili’s deputy Solomia Bobrovskaya would take care of her affairs.