Bush's comments came ahead of talks with new President Viktor Yushchenko, who is expected to push Tuesday for the European Union (EU) to open the way for eventual EU membership for his country.

Bush praised the role of European leaders in helping to resolve the political crisis in Ukraine, which led to a re-run of the contested presidential polls in December.

"As the free government takes oath in the country and as the government of president Yushchenko pursues vital reforms, Ukraine should be welcomed by the Euro-Atlantic family," he said in a speech in Brussels.

Yushchenko is to meet with Bush and European leaders here on Tuesday on the sidelines of summit meetings of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The EU, whose foreign policy chief Javier Solana was a key mediator in Ukraine's two-month political crisis, has offered to strengthen ties with Kiev but stopped short of talking about EU membership.

The EU on Monday finalized an "action plan" for Ukraine, laying out a series of benefits the EU intends to offer the country.

"Now you have a responsible Ukrainian government," said Oleg Rybachuk, Ukraine's vice premier in charge of European integration, at Monday's signing ceremony.

"You have responsible partners," he told his EU hosts, "and if we put our signatures on something, there is no way we are not going to deliver on it."

EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Ukraine and the 25 EU member states shared "a very rich agenda".

"So, please use it in order to go forward towards coming closer to the EU step by step," she said. "We are committed to helping you."

But speaking before heading to Brussels Yushchenko -- the architect of Ukraine's "orange revolution" -- said Kiev would settle for nothing less than the opening of accession talks with the EU as of 2007.

"I suggest we complete the action plan with a very important clause stipulating that, as of 2007, we will start negotiating with a view to Ukraine's entry into the European Union," Yushchenko said.

After taking in 10 new members last year, mainly former Communist nations from eastern Europe, and deciding to launch accession talks with the EU's large Muslim neighbor Turkey, there is little appetite for holding out a hand to a relatively impoverished Ukraine with nearly 50 million inhabitants.

Earlier in the day the European Union had also appealed to the United States to join it in taking steps leading to Ukraine's possible admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) this year.

"We feel that it is important for us all to pull together for Ukraine to be allowed into the WTO, if possible in 2005," said a spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

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