Asked whether Ukraine might join the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2007 and then NATO in 2008, as predicted by analysts, de Hoop Scheffer said only: "It is a performance-based process and performance-based means, by definition, not events-based."

Kiev must first implement "essential" military, judiciary and security reforms, ensure the rule of law and stamp out corruption, the NATO chief told a joint news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk and Defence Minister Anatoly Grytsenko.

"NATO will, wherever and when it's necessary, assist and help Ukraine in realising those important reforms," he added.

But he warned Ukraine's government that "deeds" would matter far more than "words".

NATO would be paying particular attention to parliamentary elections due in Ukraine in March 2006, its secretary general said.

"Free and fair elections is a very important milestone" in the NATO-Ukraine relationship, added de Hoop Scheffer, who arrived on Tuesday night for a three-day visit.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told a meeting with the delegation that it was "among the most important priorities" of Kiev to join NATO, according to the presidential press service.

Defense Minister Grytsenko said he hoped that closer cooperation with NATO would better inform Ukrainians about the activities of the defence alliance.

Polls show that almost half the country's population is against joining NATO.

"Our citizens will be able to understand that joining NATO doesn't mean the presence of nuclear arms on Ukrainian territory, nor the closure of industrial military companies, nor the immediate withdrawal of the Russian fleet from the Black Sea (in the south of Ukraine)," the minister said.

Yushchenko, who was swept to power by the so-called "orange revolution" in late 2004, has made it clear he wants to bring Ukraine into the European Union and NATO.

Fellow former Soviet bloc countries Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined the NATO alliance in March 2004.

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