KIEV, Feb 21 (AFP) - The new leadership of Ukraine responded coolly Monday to Russian efforts to encourage Kiev to join a new Moscow-led economic bloc of four ex-Soviet republics, saying the plan could pose "problems" for its goal of EU membership.
"If we are talking about a free-trade zone, in principle this would not pose a problem for our integration with the EU and the WTO," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk told reporters following talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
But he added: "If we are talking about more fundamental integration, there could be problems. As our president said, for us our priority is membership in the European Union."
The European Commission has previously made clear its view that Ukrainian membership in the so-called Common Economic Space (CES) -- an idea promoted by Russia that would also include Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan -- could jeopardize Kiev's chances of one day joining the EU.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, agreed to the union, but Kiev's participation is now in doubt as it turns westward after the "orange revolution" late last year brought opposition reformists to power.
The Russian foreign minister earlier Monday met Yushchenko, who was about to embark on a landmark visit to Brussels to push for the opening of accession talks with the 25-member European Union from 2007.
A Russian foreign ministry spokesman insisted Sunday that Ukraine could still be a member of the Moscow-led bloc even as it seeks to join the EU.
Lavrov, however, conceded that Ukraine, which also wants to join the US-led NATO military alliance, was free to do as it judged best.
"We approach our relations with any country respecting their sovereignty and respecting their completely sovereign choice of partners, states or organizations," he said.
Although the Ukrainian president has not explicitly said that his country will pull out of the CES, several of his ministers have said that participation in the economic union was incompatible with Kiev's new strategic direction.
During their meeting, Yushchenko assured Lavrov that he was committed to maintaining good ties with Moscow.
"There is not a single person in my team doubting the need for good relations with Russia, their improvement, intensification and solution of every problem," the Interfax news agency quoted Yushchenko as saying afterwards.
The Ukrainian leader also said after his talks with Lavrov that Putin may visit Ukraine late next month, Interfax said.
Yushchenko has sought to assure Russia that Ukraine will continue to develop relations with its giant neighbor, which is Kiev's largest trading partner and supplies most of its energy.
But the new leadership in Ukraine, swept to power on a wave of popular revolt against the ousted pro-Russia regime, has also made clear its overriding goal is to join the club of European democracies.
Putin, who openly backed Yushchenko's defeated pro-Russian rival, former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, pushed the free-trade project as a means to restore Moscow's influence in its former Soviet backyard.
And analysts in Kiev say that this is why Ukraine's pro-West government has no intention to participate in such a plan.
"The aim of the project is not just a free-trade zone. At the very least it plans a customs union and Russia would like to see an economic union, even a currency union," said Valery Chaly of the Razumkov Center for Political and Economic Studies.
"Ukraine cannot embark on two paths of integration at the same time. Russia has to understand that Ukraine has chosen its strategic route, and that is the European Union," he told AFP.

02/21/2005 16:40 GMT - AFP